Within Reach
by gfdhgfdjzdjzfdjgz798gjd9ug450e
Summary: Separated in their childhood two twins live their lives - one a life full of fear, anger, and disappointment while the other is brought to the Jedi temple on Coruscant and trained as a Jedi. They go through life not knowing the other one is alive until one day everything changes. The story takes place in The Old Republic era and features 2 OCs and returning characters from SWTOR.
1. Chapter 1

_A long time ago in a Galaxy far, far away…_

 _ **STAR WARS: THE OLD REPUBLIC  
WITHIN REACH**_

 _War! After a strong initial strike across the Outer Rim, the Sith Empire has secured many of the planets and is slowly moving inwards towards the Mid and Inner Rim. But with the Empire's initial momentum advantage gone the Republic soldiers had time to dig in, stalling the Sith as much as they can. Meanwhile, the Jedi are helping the valiant troops defend their homes while also conducting small strikes against the Empire…_

 **Chapter 1**

8 BTC || 3661 BBY

(Lah'Mu)

"Girls come here I have something to tell you." The sound of two sets of feet quickly kicking against the floor could be heard coming closer and closer to the hatch that led to the attic. Then a few moments later the first tiny leg popped out from the hatch, reaching for the first step. Soon after the rest of the barefoot four-year-old Togruta appeared on the ladder wearing her favorite brown dress. And above her also descending the ladder was also a four-year-old human girl with long dark hair that went slightly past her shoulders. These were the Galician twins. Many people got confused the first time they saw them and how could they not be. Usually, if two races mixed a hybrid child would appear, showing both of the races' features but Myria and Keira were exceptions. The chance of twins being a completely separate race was next to none.

Myria was Togruta, taking the orange skin, sharp teeth, lekku with blue stripes, white face marks and montrals from her mother while Keira had her father's black hair and stubbornness. The only thing that was the same about them were their heavenly blue eyes.

"You two certainly are quick," Abala, their mother said with her signature smile. She was a very sociable person who was beloved by the whole village. "We got a letter from Jaran." Jaran was their older brother who went to the Grand Military Academy on Coruscant soon after they were born so they didn't remember him, but their mother told them that he was much smarter than any person she had ever met.

"To my family," she began reading out loud. "I don't have much time, so I'll be quick. I and my battalion are currently stationed on the nearby planet of Agamar on a mission. It feels good being close to home, but I would prefer it if I could actually visit you, so I chatted with the commander and he has granted me a three day long leave after our mission here concludes. I can't wait to finally see you and the girls. And also say hi to Pa for me. Signed, Jaran." Abala closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before opening them and looking towards her bedroom. Myria and Keira shared sad looks as well.

Their father Gavin had enlisted into the military six years prior when the Empire started coming closer and closer towards Lah'mu. He had felt that it was his duty to protect the family and everybody else, so he one day disappeared with some of the other men from the village. Her mother had begged him to stay but he would have none of it. "A display of his stubbornness," his mother would call it if the conversation about him leaving was ever brought up. That was until one day a man showed up at their door carrying a box of their father's things, he took with him. They didn't understand what had happened back then since they were only two years old, but they remember that it was the only time they saw their mother crying.

After that day she talked to the things that were left behind every night. Myria and Keira whose room was right next to their mother's could hear her mumbling and sometimes sobbing due to the house's sound insulation being bad. Jaran's letters always included the say hi to dad part. Knowing that Jaran mourned his father as well made her a bit happier.

"What were you doing up there?" Abala managed to transform herself into her normal smiling self seemingly without effort. If it was genuine happiness or if it was just to make the twins feel better, they never knew.

"We were playing hide and seek," Keira answered.

"Why don't you go play outside? It's nice out."

Two different happy messages of approval rang out instantly and the twins already started running towards the door with grins on their faces.

"Remember. Be home before it gets dark outside," Abala reminded them.

The two girls stormed out of their one-story house into the wide farms and grasslands of Lah'Mu. The sun usually was never able to shine through the thick layer of clouds but today the skies were so clear that the even the so-called Lah'Mu triplets – three very soft blue moons were visible. One thing that was always present was the wind which was usually strong and cold but on that day it was gentle and warm making it seem like the tall grass and crops were being stroked by it.

"Where do you want to go?" Myria asked. Instead of answering Keira ran towards one of the small shell-like structures. Those were in fact houses that were mostly underground. With a bit of trouble and sliding due to the structures wet walls, they managed to climb on top of it. It wasn't much higher up than the ground but the view it provided was stunning.

Giant mountains made of black rock were out far in the distance, large fields of various crops that were almost ready for harvesting were dancing in the wind while the expansive grasslands separated the two.

"You up for some more hide and seek?" Keira asked. Myria nodded in response. Although they've seen the view hundreds of times by now it somehow still managed to amaze them every time. "Let's go to the caves."

"Mom told us to not go there," Myria warned her. She knew Keira didn't mean going deep into the cave but staying on the outer part of it where the light still illuminated the cave but the ground there was made of the same sharp and deadly rock as the mountains. One of the other villagers tripped on those rocks once and nearly killed themselves – the sharp shard missed their heart by mere millimeters.

"Don't worry, we'll be extra careful. Come on." Keira ran off before Myria could object and it wasn't like she knew that nothing would change due to her sister's stubbornness. She caught up with her quickly and they began traversing the Nysillin fields.

"Hey!" a voice called out to them. "What did I tell you about running through my field." It turned out to be Bren – an old farmer who was the owner of a few fields alongside that one. He usually wasn't angry if they ran through any of his other fields, but he was very particular about them not running through that one due to Nysillin being a very expensive crop. It could only grow in very fertile soil in very specific conditions which Lah'Mu was perfect for but due to the planet being in the middle of nowhere very few people ever came here to set up farms.

"Sorry," Myria responded looking back at the old man with an innocent smile. She then turned her attention back to Keira who kept on running. "Wait up."

The grass just as wet as the shell structure and almost as tall as them soaked them on their way there. They kept running and running all the while Keira's tracks that she left behind in the form of moved grass faded and Myria was left alone. Her montrals albeit underdeveloped were still better than ears she could hear Keira running on the squishy and muddy ground.

She froze as all of the sudden the sounds stopped, and she was left alone with only the wind and the grass that moved with it. "Keira?" she said, her voice shaking. Down on the ground, she spotted small footsteps and decided to follow them. She kept on calling her sister's name but to no avail. She seemed to have just vanished. She ascended a hill which suddenly stopped leading down into a several meter-high drop.

After a lot of hesitation Myria looked down and slowly opened her eyes but to her relief nothing but the sharp rocks were there. It then dawned on her that she was standing on top of the cave.

"Where did you go?" Myria jumped in surprise.

"Don't do that!" she warned Keira as her heartbeat finally started slowing down.

"Do what?" Keira said with a mischievous grin. "Come on it's gonna be dark soon," she continued beckoning Myria to follow her.

"You remember the rules right?" Myria asked her. They were standing in the middle of the area where instead of the ground being made of dirt it was made of layers upon layers of sharp black rocks. There were actually three caves there, each one being hidden under a hill.

"No hiding in the grass and no going too deep inside the cave," Keira said as if she was reciting. "You seek first."

"Why me?"

"Mom was a hunter so…"

"Just go hide," Myria said stretching out her right arm towards the surrounding area. She began loudly counting from zero all the way up to twenty while carefully listening to where Keira was headed. A small smile appeared on her face as she figured out exactly in which cave Keira was hiding without even seeing her go there. After she said twenty, she immediately ran to the cave she knew Keira was in. The ground forced her to be slow as she opted to go out bare-footed.

She searched the outside parts where she had hope she would find Keira. Myria never liked the dark. She wasn't afraid of the darkness, but she got frightened by sounds which origin she couldn't determine and weird shapes she couldn't make out, so it didn't help that the further she got in the more sounds there were. Everything from a drop of water hitting the floor to a sudden weak gust of wind made her freeze in place and carefully look around for any hazards. The deeper she went the more solid and slick the ground and walls became causing her to almost fall at certain points. " _Where is she?"_ she asked herself quietly as she searched the last hiding place in the lit part of the cave.

Myria turned her attention to the narrower passage that went further into the cave. Every instinct in her body told her to not go deeper. " _Maybe I misheard her going in here,"_ she thought. Just as she began walking towards an exit a pebble flew her way almost hitting her. "Keira stop!" she yelled in irritation. "We said no dark parts."

After not receiving an answer she continued. "If you think I'm scared you're wrong," she called out with no response yet again. She growled in irritation and began fiercely walking towards the dark passage with a frown on her face. She took a deep breath before the darkness swallowed her whole.

Everything in her body was telling her to stop but her determination kept her going. Every step became heavier and heavier until she eventually stopped. She felt like she had been walking for ages. She turned the way she came, however, there was no sign of light anymore. The only things that were accompanying her were the drops of water, the sound of her footsteps and burbling that caught her attention especially. Due to her eyes now being adjusted to the dark she managed to gain one last bit of courage and head even deeper.

She kept on walking and the sound became louder and louder. Next thing she knew a dim light crept its way into the passage in front of her. She quickened her pace a bit, still being careful of the slippery floor. The ground in front of her disappeared and she was left in shock. A large cavern with a waterfall forming into a river that gently flowed through a wide hole that led to the outside greeted her. She brought up her hand to her mouth as she gasped. The water combined with the light from the outside painted ever-moving streaks of blue light on the walls.

"Whoa," was all she managed, her eyes wide open.

"Boo." Myria jumped once again.

"Stop doing that," she demanded shoving Keira away.

Keira immediately reacted by shoving her back, causing Myria to lose her footing. It was as if time stopped. The realization of what she had done only hit her when she was hanging over the edge calling out her sister's name as she bounced off one of the edges before falling into the water and disappearing. Pain shot through Keira's body paralyzing her. It was as if her sister's pain got transferred onto her.

* * *

"What's wrong Keira?" Abala asked Keira. She returned home a couple of hours after they had originally left the house. Keira was breathing heavily and was struggling to get words out. She then buried her face into her mother's thigh and began crying.

"I… I… I."

"Calm down sweetie," Abala said stroking her dark hair. Keira calmed down a bit after a few moments. "Now sweetie, tell me what's wrong."

"We-we were pl-playing and Myria fell into the river," Keira managed to get out. Her mother's face immediately turned from a happy one to a face full of focus.

"Where?"

* * *

Myria reawakened feeling pain like no other before. She laid on her stomach and began coughing wildly, spitting out water with each one. Her head ached, and she was freezing – the sun had gone down and she was left alone. Out in the middle of the darkness and further down the stream she spotted a faint orange light. Most of the pain was coming from her right leg and whenever she attempted to move it even more pain shot up from it. She was too afraid to look so she began dragging herself across the muddy ground towards the light.

"Help!" she began calling out the closer she got. Her voice was shaking just as much as the rest of her body and she began feeling lightheaded. As she dragged herself ever closer to what resembled a wooden dock her calls for help were ever weaker and quieter.

Two beings appeared on the dock walking out of the tall grass. They began fishing out boxes out of the water and loading them onto a vehicle that was hidden by the grass. With the last ounce of her strength, she called for help as loud as she could before falling into unconsciousness.

Her vision bleary she saw the two forms approach her. "Is that a little girl?"

"What happened to her?" The pain and nausea made it so the voices sounded distorted, so she had to guess who was talking by the gestures they were making.

"I don't know but it doesn't look good. We should get her to camp," the more slender man said as he crouched down in front of her. "She won't make it if we leave her out here."

"You know it's not a good idea. The captain won't be happy. Maybe we should try finding her family," the other one suggested.

"We don't have time for that. We're pulling out in the next two hours. Let's get back to fishing the spice out."

"And just leave her here?" The bigger man who didn't look human said aggressively. "Do you want to have a dead girl on your conscience?"

The slander man sighed and stood up. "You know what he'll do to her," he said quietly.

"I know but it's better than leaving her to die." The larger man approached her and carefully picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. "Get back to fishing."

* * *

Abala gathered most of the village folk and as the night fell onto the grasslands of Lah'mu the villagers all followed Keira out of their cozy homes into the harsher and stronger winds of the night. All of them donned various fur jackets and coats to protect themselves from the cold and in their hands were various sources of light.

"It happened here." Keira led them to where the river emerged from the cave. She didn't want her mother to add on another layer of fear and anger by saying that they were in the cave when she fell. She didn't believe that her sister survived the fall but something in her head was telling her that she was alive, yet she still didn't understand why she was feeling such pain especially in her right leg. It wasn't as paralyzing as before but it still hurt.

"Let's find a safe place where we can cross," Abala recommended looking down into the deep crevice where the river flowed.

" _I promise I'll find you Miri,"_ Keira told herself.

"What did you two idiots do!?" The voices were now much clearer. Myria opened her eyes and the pain she hoped would've stopped was still there. She also noticed that she was in a small cage that looked to have been made for an animal. On her leg were a bunch of dirty rags with two sticks underneath which prevented her leg from bending.

"We're sorry Brass but we just couldn't let her die out there," the bigger man who turned out to be a Weequay said. He was so large that his frame covered the person who he was talking to who as it seemed was his boss. "You can do whatever you want with her."

"You're lucky this didn't take a lot of time which if I have to remind you again, we're running short on!" He yelled at the Weequay who cowered back a bit. "Agamar fell and the Empire is mere days if not hours away. If they catch us, we're dead."

It dawned on Myria what he had just said. ' _Agamar fell.'_ The place where her brother was at. She gasped gaining the two men's attention.

The Weequay turned, exposing a human. His skin was dark, and his natural eyes were replaced by two cybernetic eyes. There were various metal bits connected across the various areas of his face and arms. "Well look who woke up," he said as he begun approaching the cage.

Myria fearing the man began to crawl back slowly, using mostly her hands due to her incapacitated leg but was soon stopped by the bars of the cage. He crouched down in front of the cage and looked her in the eyes. "Don't worry little girl we'll fix you right up," he said with a fiendish smile.

"Will you get me back to my family?" Myria managed to ask.

The cyborg barked out a laugh. "Of course, sweetie. We would have it no other way." And with a tap on the cage, he got up and left the dark room with his colleague. The door closed behind them and she was left in complete darkness. A few minutes later the whole room began shaking violently and the faint sound of thrusters could be heard and that's when Myria realized she wasn't going home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

8 BTC || 3661 BBY

(Lah'Mu)

"Abala we've searched far and wide," Xart, their neighbor, protested. "The others are tired and freezing. We can continue our search tomorrow."

"No!" Abala said with a furious stare which scared Keira. She had never seen her mother that upset before. It was all her fault and she knew it. The guilt had been eating her alive, but she couldn't bring herself to tell the truth as it would probably hurt her mother even more. For now, she would remain quiet. "I need to find her," Abala continued, her voice cracking. But she was tired as well, barely being able to stand on her feet anymore.

"I promise we'll come back. All of us will but we need to rest. If you push yourself harder, you'll end up harming yourself."

"Fine," she said through gritted teeth. As Xart went off to tell the villagers to go home Abala turned to Keira. "We'll find her. I promise."

That night her mother's sobbing was louder than ever before and combined with Keira's guilt which only became more and more burdening made it so that Keira was unable to sleep. She still felt the same pain only now it wasn't as prominent. The memories of her pushing her sister in response to being pushed flashed in her head followed by memories of how she helplessly watched her fall into the water below appeared whenever she closed her eyes and when she opened them, she swore that she saw the same blue streaks of light from the cave on the wall of her room for a moment.

The next morning her mother was making breakfast when all of the sudden the walls began shaking wildly and a ship could be heard approaching. Abala walked out the door just as the ship flew over the house. The ship resembled those in the Republic Starfleet with a white body and streaks of red paint. The ship landed on the outskirts of the village. Abala kept standing on the front porch waiting for anybody to start approaching the village which eventually happened. A man dressed in a dark brown cowl with a hood over his head walked right towards her.

Abala felt fear and slight hope. She hoped that the person somehow found her daughter and brought her back or knew where she was but she feared that it wasn't so.

"Abala Galician?" From how close the man was now she could see almost the entirety of his face clearly. An older human with a long dark beard and green eyes stood before her.

"Yes?" she managed to get out after a few moments.

"I am Jedi Master Wens Aleusis," he said, bowing slightly. "I'm here to talk about your daughters." Abala knew of the Jedi, being a person that was born on Shili and grew up there she heard the stories and even saw some Jedi, so she braced herself for the inevitable.

 _Myria found herself in a vast and open space with sand on the ground. The world didn't seem to ever end as the only thing she could see in the distance was darkness. She was standing there all alone with no pain and no bandages on her leg._

" _Hello," she said, her voice echoing through the emptiness._

" _You are a failure," a deep voice off in the distance said. Myria gasped and turned to where she thought the voice was coming from, but nothing was there. Then the sound of a whip followed by screams came from behind her again but when she turned there was nothing there as well._

" _You will be forgotten."_

" _Your death will be the greatest gift to this galaxy, you monster."_

" _We'll find her. I promise"_

" _Mercy! Mercy!"_

" _You dare betray me!?"_

 _There were more and more voices coming out of nowhere, overwhelming her. She kept aimlessly turning on her heels trying to see anything but still, all that remained was the sand and darkness until another whiplash turned everything into darkness._

Myria shot up and hit her head on the top of the low cage. It was all a bad dream. She was still in the dark and cold cargo hold of a ship going who knew where. She couldn't exactly say it was any better than the nightmare but at least she wasn't as afraid. What she hated the most about waking up was the pain in her leg which had lessened to an extent, but it still hurt.

The door to the cargo hold opened. A short dark girl carrying a tray in her hands entered the room and turned on the lights. She didn't look much older than Keira. She walked up to the cage and put the tray of food on the floor. Her expression matched one of remorse and sadness. It seemed like she wanted to say something but instead decided to remain quiet and leave the room.

Myria's gaze followed her until she exited the room, turning her attention to the tray of food after. A piece of bread and a glass filled with some weird orange liquid was all there was on it. She turned around and cautiously dragged herself towards the tray. She didn't even know she was hungry until her sharp teeth sank into the hard crust of the bread which had to be over a few weeks old. After taking a few bites she began drinking the orange liquid which turned out to be carbonated orange juice. Myria wasn't particularly a fan of carbonated drinks but she gladly consumed the sweet orange liquid which did wonders for her dry throat.

She was enjoying the humble meal so much she didn't even notice that somebody entered the room again. This time it was the Weequay that found her and with him was a well-built human with a crooked nose and short dark hair. They were searching the shelves.

"Have you seen the new arrival yet?" the Weequay asked as he took one of the big metal boxes off the top shelf.

"No," the man answered.

The Weequay put the box on the ground. "Well, then you should take a look at her."

"Fine," he answered with a sigh. They turned their attention away from the shelves and headed into Myria's direction.

The man's look of boredom instantly transformed into a look of slight shock and intrigue upon seeing Myria.

"What? Have you never seen a Togruta before?" the Weequay laughed.

"I've seen them, but this one looks familiar," he said, turning his attention to Myria. "Is your name Myria by any chance?"

Abala collapsed into one of the chairs on the porch. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. First, the Jedi came to her house and asked her if he could take her daughters to Coruscant to train them as Jedi. She never knew her children were force-sensitive as they never gave any sign of it but the Jedi told her that they had sent somebody here a few years ago and he managed to sense that they were sensitive to the Force.

But that wasn't what made her collapse into the chair. After the Jedi explained everything, he told her to go to his ship and tell him her decision when she made it. Then Xart came around and gave her the sad news that they found a pool of blood on the river bank and followed its trail to a nearby dock where they found a trail that led through the grasslands to a large are of stomped grass where there appeared to be a camp and a ship.

The front door to the house opened. "Mom?"

"Sweetie we need to talk," Abala said, blankly staring towards the Jedi ship which was parked amidst the familiar fields of grass. She couldn't and wouldn't waste her daughter's talent. She couldn't bring herself to do the selfish thing of keeping her daughter at home when the life of a potential hero awaited her. She taught Keira and Myria for their entire lives not to be selfish and she wasn't going to go against her own teachings. And if it turned out that Myria was… No. She shook that thought out of her head immediately. " _I'll find her,"_ she told herself. " _And then I'll bring her to Coruscant myself if I have to."_

"I don't know you," Myria answered.

"I knew your father," the man said. The emotions on his face showed that he cared about him. "We were in the army together. I was there when he fell." He took a few moments to compose himself. "He was a good man and he loved his family. Always spoke of his daughters and showed us the pictures his wife had sent. I'm sorry for your loss."

"Thank you." A tear ran down her cheek. She might've never seen her father but from what everyone was telling her he was a good man. This was all still confusing to her, being locked in a cage but she put it aside for a moment.

"I can't believe we're doing this to her," the Weequay said shaking his head in disapproval.

The man stood up to face and focused his attention on the Weequay. "I know, but we both know what'll happen if we try to say anything against it."

"Still doesn't mean it's the right thing to do," the Weequay argued.

"Yeah," the man agreed. He sighed and crouched back down. "Be strong little girl. For your father." Then they left the room.

"But I don't want to leave." Keira had been begging her mother for the past hour. She had told her that she was giving her to the man who would make her into a Jedi. It took a lot of explaining but even then, Keira wanted to stay home. The guilt of pushing her sister to her possible death was too much for her and she needed to be the one who found her. That was the only way she could ever forgive herself, but she expected that getting her sister's forgiveness would be harder.

"Keira please do this. You'll never get an opportunity like this again," her mother pleaded. Keira knew she only wanted the best for her children, but she still wasn't completely convinced.

"But we need to find Myria. Then we can go together." Even though most of the time she toyed with her sister she still loved her and could never imagine living without her. Sure, they had their differences but annoying each other was a thing all siblings did.

"No, I'll find her myself." It was the first time in her life that her mother raised her voice at her. Even when she and Myria sometimes did bad things, even breaking a window one time, Abala never seemed annoyed or angry, but instead used the circumstances to teach them about life and such. "Because if I don't…" Those words stung both of them hard but Abala knew she had to say them. "I need to be sure that at least you lead a good life," she said after a break.

Seeing her mother tear up again broke her. "Ok Mom," Keira said. "I'll do it for you and Myria. I'll try my best."

"I know you will," her mother said with newfound enthusiasm. "I'll do everything it takes to find your sister," Abala promised her.

"I love you mom." And with that Keira was already hugging Abala before she could react. She gladly returned her daughter's embrace.

"I love you too sweetie." She then pulled Keira out of the hug gently, putting her hands on her shoulders. "Just remember no matter what happens I'm proud of you for taking this step."

A few minutes later they approached the ship. It was still surreal to Keira that this might be the last time she gets to feel the Lah'Mu breeze and witness its vibrant green grasslands in years. After she had made her decision Abala again told her everything she knew about the Jedi and this time Keira listened carefully. She told herself she would make her family proud and she would stop at nothing to achieve it.

As they got close to the back of the ship the ramp extended slowly and the Jedi walked down it calmly. "Has she made a decision?" Keira felt a lot calmer and focused in his presence. Maybe that was a Jedi power but she could only guess.

"She said yes. What should she take with her?" Abala asked.

"I'm afraid that children are forbidden from bringing personal belongings to the temple. She will receive all the clothing and food and education she'll ever need I can assure you of that," Wens said with a dismissive wave of his arm. Abala gave her daughter one last smile and hug before she let her go.

The room shook violently as the ship appeared to land. All was silent for a few minutes until the now to her well known Weequay came into the room with his cyborg boss. They picked her up and carried the cage off the ship. As they began descending the ramp the sky of the planet, they were on came into view. It was yellow, the clouds being an even darker shape. She also observed the white pillars of smoke as they rose up from many large chimneys into the air.

The only thing she could say about the air was that it smelt like the inside of a bantha barn that somebody poured various chemicals in and hadn't cleaned in years. The strong stench made her head hurt slightly. The same looking high concrete and steel walls of the spaceport blocked the view of the outside. The two men loaded the cage on the cart along with various other boxes some of which Myria recognized to be the boxes the two men were fishing out of the river when they found her. She faintly remembered them saying that they were fishing out spice. She didn't know what it was and the unmarked tightly-closed boxes didn't emit a smell or anything that would give away what was inside them. A tarp was then thrown over the cargo preventing her from seeing where they were going. She didn't know where she landed but she was sure of one thing – it wasn't home.

The cart came to a sudden stop, rocking the boxes and her cage. She could hear the cyborg talking to something that instead of speaking, squealed and made other similar noises. Then the tarp uncovered the yellow sky and the boxes began being unloaded. A large humanoid pig-faced creature was revealed to her once it unloaded the large box that covered her cage. It looked at the cyborg angrily and squealed at him.

"Yes, she's part of the cargo. We're taking her to Javis," the cyborg said, appeasing the creature. It gave the cyborg a fist full of credits, picked up the box and carried it away.

"Come on Husk let's get her to Jarvis," he told the Weequay. They then pulled the cage towards them and began carrying it once they pulled it past the end of the cart.

Myria noticed that they were in a swamp with a few buildings that looked like warehouses. The two men carried her into one of them and gently dropped her on the ground. The room they were in was a scarcely furnished office. All there was, was a few chairs, a long desk and an old terminal.

"Husk get back to the speeder and tell the crew to get ready. I'll finish up here," the cyborg told him.

"Got it, boss," Husk said glancing at Myria one last time. He opened the door revealing another cyborg, although this one had less augments and a gray mustache. Husk made way for the man and then proceeded to leave and close the door.

"Brass," the man greeted heading for his desk.

"Javis."

"So, what has my favorite pirate brought me today?"

Myria couldn't believe it. She got captured by pirates. Their mother always told them how Lah'Mu was the safest planet in the outer rim.

"Something to go along with the spice," he said gesturing towards the cage.

Javis's happy expression faded a bit. "A child?"

"A couple of my guys found her with a broken leg," Brass told him.

"You know I don't take broken merchandise." Javis made it sound like Brass selling children was a common occurrence.

"Come on, she's a Togruta! You don't have many slaves like that from what I've seen and neither does the other Hutt."

"That is true," Javis said stroking his chin gently. "I'll take her," he said after a few quiet moments. "But at half price."

"Deal."

Myria's heart sank as she realized what had just transpired before her eyes. She had been sold into slavery. She couldn't help but cry as all hope of returning home left her.

"What have you managed to learn Aleusis?" a woman dressed in a robe similar to his asked, her hologram being the only thing alongside a dim light that illuminated the cockpit.

"There are more people there than we expected. Multiple villages not one. They don't have enough ships and ours are too far away to help them," Wens said.

"And the girls?"

"I only managed to find one. Her sister got lost and they're still searching for her," Wens reported. An earie silence fell on the small cockpit of the ship.

"It is a shame, but the Empire is too close now after Agamar fell for us to do anything. We can only hope that the Force will be with those poor souls." And with that, the hologram shut off. Anger went through Wens unlike any before. He was a Jedi Master, but he couldn't just not care about people being left to fend on their own against an enemy such as the Empire. He was even ordered not to warn the settlers. It all felt wrong to him, but it was war and he had to do what he had to do, so he pushed the anger aside and calmed down. He could rest easy knowing that he at least managed to get one of the girls out in time.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to help him calm down fully and recompose himself. He then opened his eyes and pulled back the lever, sending the ship into the wonderous blue tunnel of hyperspace.

* * *

 _And, that's the first arc of the story done. Hope you enjoyed it._

 _And if you have some time please leave a positive/negative review so I know your thoughts and what I could improve on._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

8 BTC || 3661 BBY

Coruscant

Keira had been on Coruscant for nearly five hours when she was called to join the rest of the new younglings, which was the first rank given to anybody who began training. From the few short minutes Keira had with Master Wens she managed to learn what the different ranks were and where in the temple she would be located before he excused himself and joined the rest of the Jedi that were standing on a podium on top of the Temple plaza stairs.

Usually, Jedi didn't hold ceremonies like that. In normal times they brought in younglings one by one when they either coincidentally found them or if they were old enough and on their extensive list of confirmed or rumored force-sensitives, but they were in the middle of a war so getting everybody in at the same time would make organizing their training and lessons much easier.

Those standing on the podium were part of the Jedi council whose job it was to govern the order. They were the most powerful and intelligent warriors, scholars, and thinkers in the order. There were some races on the podium and around her that Keira didn't even recognize, reminding her of the time her mother had told her how big the galaxy actually was.

A strange looking being unlike any she had seen before stepped forth. Its orange skin reminded her of Myria's, the thought immediately trying to pull her out of reality and back into the nightmare of remembering what she did, but she managed to pull herself out of it. She had no doubt that her mother would do everything it took to find her, so she relaxed and focused her attention back on the podium. The orange thing also had its eyes covered and it appeared to be wearing a mask.

"Welcome to Coruscant younglings. I am Grand Master Zym," he began. "You were all brought here because there is something special about you – and that special thing is the Force. It resides in all living beings but only a fraction has the ability to use it," Zym said, his raspy and augmented voice echoing throughout the large open space. "You were chosen by the Force to be something more and we're here to help you achieve that. Over the next few years, you will learn about the Force and how to use it."

He then brought out a small tube-shaped device and with the press of a button a long blue blade of energy formed out of seemingly nothing. "But let's not dwell on the boring things," he said moving the sword through the air to show it off. He knew children well from dealing with them all his life and he knew that talking about the mysteries of the Force would probably make them fall asleep, so he decided to entertain them a bit. "This is a lightsaber, a weapon fueled by the power of a crystal. You will be able to build one of your own once you are deemed worthy."

Keira observed the many other children around her. Some of them were jumping from excitement, while others were conversing with their friends about their futures with big grins on their faces. With everyone talking it made her realize just how lonely she truly was. All her life was spent mostly with her sister and nobody else since the other children went to the various academies, the nearest one being two sectors away, so they usually never came back until they graduated and those visits were most of the time very short, their only intention being visiting their family and going back into the large galaxy to make a living for themselves.

Later that day after the ceremony the younglings were each individually called to follow a Jedi. The Jedi who was calling their names called ten younglings at a time who would then disappear into the temple with the Jedi who was assigned to escort them.

While she waited, she decided to turn her attention to the other parts of Coruscant. A large urban metropolis, it played its part as the capital world of the Republic. The large buildings on the ground, as well as the ones built high above the ground and even the ones you couldn't see which were built under ground all, played testament to the sheer size and power of the planet. The air lanes were a constant slideshow of different vehicles while a little bit higher up Republic frigates and the varied freighters and other ships dotted the sky.

The Temple itself was a different story. While the other buildings were larger, most of them looked bland making the Temple look like a piece of art. It stood out of the crowd due to its low, although still massive from a human perspective, height and the four towers that poked out of every corner and one larger tower that poked out of the middle. Keira had no idea what was up in those spherical towers, but she figured she would find out soon.

Just as she began admiring the blue and white Jedi and Republic banners that slightly flapped in the wind her name got called. She ran up to the podium and joined her group which consisted of other girls. They passed six large statues of robed men, the reflection of the sun making it appear as if they were golden but in reality, they were made out of bronzium, a metal that was cheaper but still very expensive for middle-class people. The first two held lightsabers out in front of them while the other four each held an orb. Below the statues were plaques saying who these statues depicted. Keira never heard about any of them.

Passing the statues, they came up on some memorial pylons with reliefs of what Keira could only think of as more Jedi heroes. They climbed the last flight of stairs and were now faced with a door at least fifteen times higher than Keira. Beyond there was the main hall which was just as large as everything else. It stretched for what seemed an eternity with a row of pillars on each side of the hall. Every other youngling along with Keira were awed at the beauty and size of it all. Keira didn't even manage to get a proper look at the Jedi who was escorting them until they diverted into one of the side hallways. Finally, everything seemed to normalize as Keira's amazement was replaced by happiness.

"This will be your room for the next few years," the Jedi said with a gentle smile on her face. All the girls immediately ran in with Keira right behind them only.

The room was quite a disappointment in contrast with everything else. Keira could compare it to her and Myria's room back home only if it were made for ten occupants, not two. The room was very long with five bunk beds on one side of the wall and a few desks with drawers on the other side. She got stuck with the lower bed on the other side of the room. She didn't mind it due to being so close to the window. She loved the view due to it being different to what she saw at the entrance. A few high buildings and a couple of factories far in the distance was all that stood out. The rest were smaller buildings which due to the distance transformed into one large gray platform that seemed to stretch into infinity with the sun setting at the center.

"Hey," somebody from behind greeted her. She took a moment longer to look out of the window before turning around. A girl with red hair that was formed into a ponytail and brown eyes stood before her with a smile on her face. She looked a year or two older than Keira.

"Hi," Keira said back although a bit quietly. Due to not being exposed to meeting a lot of new people she was always a bit shy when talking to somebody for the first time.

"I'm Zena."

"Keira."

"What's wrong?" Zena asked her.

"It's nothing. I've never seen a place like this before," she answered, turning around and looking back out of the window.

"Where are you from?" The red-haired girl joined her at her side.

"A planet far away. It's called Lah'Mu," Keira exclaimed. "I lived there with my mother and sister."

"Your sister isn't force-sensitive?" The question stung Keira in the heart. The new environment amazed her so much that he didn't even know she mentioned her sister. Guilt immediately overcame her once again but she did the best to hide it. She needed to stay strong for her mother.

Keira shook her head. "She's older than me, so if she was force-sensitive they would've brought her here already."

"It's a shame. It must be nice having a sister," Zena said her expression contorting into a sad one. "I come from Corellia. My dad owns a small shipbuilding company, so he paid for private education and everything. I never really got to meet anybody my age, but now that I did, I'm happy. Want to meet the others?"

Keira turned her head and glanced at the other girls in the room. It appeared as if most of them already knew each other or already introduced. She took a moment to push her hesitation aside. "Let's do it."

* * *

4 BTC || 3657 BBY

"Keira, you're up." Keira had hoped that they would run out of time before that happened. She was standing in the back of the group of her clanmates, the same girls she shared a room with, hoping to not get noticed.

After she got called some of the girls turned and gazed at her. Most of them attempted to suppress laughter by putting their hands up to their mouths while Zena looked at her with a sad expression.

The four years she had spent in the temple hadn't been good ones. It all started off well with her and her clanmates being assigned classes such as mathematics, history and other such subjects. She also excelled at athletics and gymnastics. It all went well until she came into the third year of her studies where alongside classes and lessons about the Force, combat classes got added as well.

Even though they were only learning the theoretical side of the Force, for now, she excelled at it like all other theoretical classes but combat lessons were something completely different. She was good at moving fast but she just couldn't learn how to fight. Whether it was hand-to-hand combat, technique practice with a practice sword or any other advanced combat lessons she failed hard at all of them, making her the laughing stock of the clan.

Even after spending hours practicing on her with Zena she never managed to improve to a level where she could compete with any other member of her clan. It was the only time in her life that her stubbornness didn't help her at all.

She took a deep breath and stepped forth through the small crowd. Walking up to the center of the room she took the practice sword from the instructor's hand and readied herself.

"Ready?" She nodded and a moment later she heard a beeping sound. A small round remote lifted into the air and began circling her. She kept up with it turning herself towards the remote as soon as it made a quick movement, keeping the sword in front of her and ready to block. The first white shock boll shot out from the remote. She deflected it with ease and moved back into the proper stance. Then it fired two bolts back to back which she also managed to deflect, but as the bursts went from three bolts onward, she struggled to keep up. The worst part was that she had a few seconds to recover from each burst and even then, she barely managed to get into the proper stance.

She barely made it through the first stage. The instructor turned a nob on the handheld device. The remote began moving more sporadically from side to side while decreasing the time between bursts. With great trouble, she managed to deflect the first two onslaughts but ended up being stung which meant that her attempt was over.

She was ashamed. She didn't even need to turn her head or listen to know that the others were mocking her. She had failed on the second stage out of five in total making her dead last in her class once again.

"A valiant attempt Keira," the instructor said before turning to the rest of the group. "Girls, you may go."

After the room cleared out Keira still found herself in the middle of the room clenching the practice sword in her right hand and staring at the ground.

"Keira?"

She sighed. "Sorry, Master," she said, handing him the sword.

"You're improving."

"Too slowly," she added.

"Well, there are more ways to help the order other than being good with a lightsaber," he exclaimed, peaking her interest.

"How?"

He lowered himself to her level. "I went through your grades. You're a very smart girl. I actually used to have a friend exactly like you, wasn't good at combat but was very smart. Up until this day, he's still one of the best Consulars we have."

She would've much rather kept on practicing but if there was another way she could help she was willing to do so. Her will to try and practice even more was almost gone anyway. "What are Consulars?"

"They are scholars. Some of the brightest minds of the Order that dedicate their lives to uncovering the secrets of the Force, whether through communion with the Force itself or by finding artifacts imbued with it," the instructor explained.

Keira never knew that Consulars even existed but then again why would young children need to know that. She always liked the lessons about the Force, deeming them more interesting than anything else. "How do I become one?"

"If you keep up your grades and show that you are as competent using it as you are studying it, I have no doubts that the Consular council will take you in," he guaranteed her.

Later that day she headed to the enormous Jedi library. She came out with all of the holo-books about the Force she could carry. As opposed to the other girls in her room she didn't mind reading and studying.

She entered her room. It was practically the same as the day she first entered it only that the sheets were messy and everywhere. She plopped the stack of holobooks onto her desk. It was a large pile, but she told herself she would go through it. She then looked to the left and out the window seeing the same sunset as she did on her first day there. She decided to move her wooden desk in front of it and with a lot of effort eventually managed to do so with the help of Zena who entered the room after her to see her struggling.

"You did well today," she commented. "I have no doubt you'll improve even further over time."

"Hope so," Keira responded. Usually, she was sad after she failed but this time she was unusually happy and Zena didn't fail to notice it.

Zena raised a brow. "What's going on?" Her confusion was apparent.

It took a while to explain to her that she was planning on becoming a consular, but it was obvious that the answer didn't please Zena. "So, you're just giving up?"

"I'm not giving up. I'm just choosing a different path in case this one doesn't work out. Don't get me wrong I want to learn how to fight but if I'm not good at it I'm just not and I won't throw everything away," Keira explained.

"Sounds reasonable," Zena said shrugging. "I really hope you succeed with the original plan. How cool would it be to kick Sith butt together?" Her eyes shined bright with excitement.

"Would be pretty cool," Keira agreed. " _With Myria especially."_ Keira learned early on that the worst thing about joining the Jedi was the fact that she was forced to cut contact with her family. The Jedi didn't allow attachment among many other things people outside the Order would think of as normal.

Attachments were a big part of the reason why people turned to the dark side. Not having the ability to let go of dead close ones or the ones they loved drove them to do unimaginable things. But that wasn't the only reason. The Dark Side always lurked close by, waiting for an opportunity to lure an unsuspecting Jedi to the darkness. The promise of power only something like the dark side could offer sometimes proved to be too much to resist.

So, for now, she had to push her sister away and focus on herself.

* * *

3 BTC || 3656 BBY

"What the?" Keira was in the room of a thousand fountains attempting to teach herself how to use the Force before their first practical lesson when she felt somebody stroking her back gently. She jumped onto her feet and turned in every direction trying to find who did it. There was nobody next to her, but she didn't rule out the possibility of somebody doing something like that with the Force to toy with her, so she searched the surrounding bushes and trees as well. After only finding a squirrel she returned to the middle of the clearing where she was before. She had been experiencing similar things for a year or so. On some days it wouldn't even happen, so it baffled her as to what was happening or what was causing it.

She began taking deep breaths of the fresh air to calm herself. The room of a thousand fountains was the last bit of nature left on Coruscant and the fascinating thing was that it was built inside the Temple fully. A glass ceiling allowed in light and there were even small streams of water running through the room, pouring out into ponds. Even small animals like some birds lived there and were even able to fly freely due to the high ceiling.

The past year had been similar to the other ones: she failed horribly at combat lessons but impressed everyone with her knowledge of the Force and other subjects. Trying to catch up in combat classes meant that she had to dedicate the little bit of free time she had to practice but she was beginning to improve slowly. Still, she was improving way too slow to get in on the first round of the Gathering.

The Gathering was an ancient tradition where after passing initiate trials, younglings would be taken to the planet Ilum, an icy planet on the far reaches of space, to get their lightsabers crystals and then they could make their own lightsabers. But to Keira's annoyance being picked out to go was mostly dependent on combat grades rather than anything else.

She returned back to the task at hand. Getting on her knees she focused her eyes on the branch she laid down in front of her when she came to the spot earlier. After reading at least a dozen books which facilitated her theoretical knowledge of the Force she now attempted to try and use it. She stretched out her hand towards the branch and closed her eyes. She emptied her head completely and visualized the branch lifting up into the air. She had to focus hard to even get her thoughts to cooperate with her. After she had finally managed to visualize the branch being lifted into the air, she opened her eyes only to be met with a blinding white light.

 _She opened her eyes again and gasped in shock at the familiar surroundings. She was in the cave laying on her back. "No!" she protested but no sound was emitted, nor did she feel her moving her mouth. Her body began to lift itself on to its feet without her feeling anything. She looked on in horror as she saw Myria on the edge of the drop once again. She was experiencing the nightmare again but this time it felt real and something was off. Keira after looking down noticed that she was standing there as her current self with Myria being taller as well with her Lekku and Montrals a bit more developed. She saw the blue streaks of light paint the familiar image on the cavern walls behind Myria and heard the deafening waterfall._

 _She began moving towards Myria. Keira protested as hard as she could, but her body wouldn't listen to her. She was once again forced to look at how she pushed her sister to her possible death. Then the white light returned blinding her again._

She found herself back in the real world and witnessed for a split second, the branch being suspended in the air before it plummeted to the ground. She fell forward on her hands, her breathing quick and heavy and her eyes filling with tears.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

3 BTC || 3656 BBY

As soon as the doors to the training room opened the girls alongside another clan poured into the room, practically wedging themselves in the door almost. The excitement of the children stemmed from the fact that their first lesson was to be conducted by Jedi Master Wyellet, a war hero and his Padawan Xerender. They fought in countless battles bringing victory to the Republic.

Even though she was young Keira knew better than that. Most of the other younglings idealized them as being immortal heroes of the Jedi order and wanted to be like them but she knew that many losses laid behind the façade of victory.

Most of her own excitement stemmed from the fact that she actually knew how to use the Force on the most basic of basic levels, having taught how to use it herself, but there was a hidden fear in the back of her head. A fear she tried to suppress time and time again, but it would never go away. It was the fear of seeing the nightmare again. She had attempted Force usage a couple times after that and to her relief she hadn't seen the nightmare. She casually entered the room with a sigh only to see the other younglings virtually overwhelm the two Jedi who stood in the middle of the room with grins on their faces.

It took a couple of minutes for them to calm the younglings down while Keira stood away from the crowd and observed them in amusement. She was only nine, but she felt as if she was a couple of years older than the other younglings or as if they were a couple of years younger than her in maturity. Her clanmates, when not mocking her for being incompetent in combat, would usually comment on how dull and boring she became, but she didn't mind it. She knew she was developing her abilities faster than any of them could comprehend. While they mocked about and did the bare minimum of studying, she liked being alone and reading or just thinking. The only other person in the clan she really talked to was Zena who's wishes for them to go out and do something interesting were denied more times than Keira could feel good about. She almost alienated her only friend, but she was determined to fix that.

After the rest of the younglings calmed down they joined her a bit further back from the center of the room.

"Well from what we experienced right now I don't think introductions are in order," Wyellet said with his hands clasped in front of him. He shared another grin with Xerender before continuing.

"As you all know by now or maybe not the actual greatest weapon of a Jedi is the Force. Xerender please demonstrate," he said, waving his hand towards a small box.

"Of course, Master," Xerender replied. He then turned towards the box, extended his right hand and lifted the object with the Force. Then he began moving it around in the air and rotating it.

"The Force resides within every living being," Wyellet began to lecture them. Keira noted that most of the other younglings were more focused on the levitating object rather than listening to an actual important lecture. "It is an invisible energy fields that connects everything in the Galaxy. We still do not fully comprehend how a person becomes force-sensitive so for now we can only determine that the Force chooses who will have the ability to use it."

From what Keira read she learnt that all phenomenon could be explained, yet nobody was able to even come close to why people could use the Force let alone how it even worked.

While Wyellet was talking Xerender dropped to box on the floor, joining his master at his side. "Today we are here to teach you how to use and give you a few pointers." He looked around the crowd of younglings for a moment. "Would anybody like to volunteer?" His eyes went over the crowd again which became surprisingly silent.

"I'll do it," Keira happily said with a smirk on her face.

"A confident one I see," Wyellet said with a nod of approval. "Step forth, young one."

She felt her clanmates eyeing her confusedly. She stopped in front of the Jedi Master and the Padawan.

"So, let's be-" he began saying.

"Master if I may interrupt," she said confidently.

"Go ahead," Wyellet said, the surprise on his and Xerender's face apparent.

"May I try it on the larger box," she said pointing to another box, this one deeper in the room.

"Of course," he answered, moving out of the way.

She took a step forward and froze herself in place. She closed her eyes after visualizing the box. Clearing her head of everything – her doubts, fears, she extended her right hand and focused on lifting the objects. The few silent wows and a deafening silence confirmed that she had managed to successfully complete her task.

She opened her eyes only to see the box float. Usually she would be surprised to see the object floating which would cause her to lose focus and drop it but this time she remained completely focused. She brought up her other hand and the box began turning and moving around the room in correlation with her hand movements. She did a full circle around the room, even being able to remain focused as she saw the stunned expressions of the other younglings, before setting the box down in the middle of her, Wyellet and Xarander.

"Most impressive," Xerender commented.

"Most impressive indeed," Wyellet agreed. "Did you learn this by yourself?"

Keira nodded, trying her hardest to keep her pride hidden. "In my free time."

"Very good. Can you stay here after class?" It only took a millisecond for Keira to give him confirmation.

* * *

After everybody but the three of them had left the room, she approached Master Wyellet. "Why did you need me to stay, Master?"

"Keira Galician. That is your name, right?" Wyellet asked.

Keira could swear her heart skipped a beat. Although the instructors did their best to remember the names of the younglings there were just too many of them to remember, so she felt privileged that a Jedi Master who would only lecture them a few times knew her name. "Yes, Master."

"There has been much talk about you among the instructors. You are an odd case to say the least. From what I hear you're really smart and from what I've seen today I can't doubt that your ability with the Force will only evolve if you put the required effort in. But I became aware of your issues with combat classes while talking to the instructors. What's bothering you?"

"I just can't improve. I've been training as hard as I could but I'm still the worst in my clan and probably the entire Temple," she explained.

"Hmm." Wyellet pondered something for a moment. In the meantime, Xerender had excused himself and left the room. "Have you been made aware of the Consular council?"

"Yes, Master. One of the instructors told me about it," she said. "I would gladly begin my training as a consular if combat classes don't work out for me," she added.

"Good. The Order could always benefit from another great mind," he said, stroking his chin. "Once you turn ten and the instructors deem you fit to proceed, you'll be able to select which path you want to pursue. In the last couple of years, we had been assigning every youngling as a potential Knight, but we've had cases like you. If you proceed with your studies, I have no doubt that the Consular Council will accept you."

At that point, it was the only option to pursue for her. The last evaluations were coming up and from what she heard the tests consist of, she would most likely not finish them. So, she decided there and then – she would become a Consular.

* * *

"How did you do that?"

"Show me how you practice!"

"Where did you learn that?"

Those were one of the few things she managed to decipher after she had gotten back to her room. The other girls instantly swarmed her, and it seemed as if they were demanding her to tell them what they wanted. It made her feel like she had gained no respect at all.

"Okay, okay," she conceded lightly shoving them away. "I'll tell you what I did." The girls eagerly leaned forward, almost to the point where they would've lost balance and fell. "I read books," Keira said. She smirked as she saw the dreaded and disappointed reactions of the others who soon dispersed.

Keeping the satisfied smirk, she walked over to her desk like usual. She sat down and began to think. Think about what happened, what could happen and what she hoped would happen. She visualized herself sitting on the council having become one of the most powerful Jedi to have ever existed, proving her clanmates wrong. But she was taught to not think about such things as Jedi were supposed to be selfless. Thinking about becoming better than somebody and actively reminding them about it went against that rule alongside the mere thought of thinking that you're the best. Although public test scores and such went against that they were still being put up on display. It was that small hypocrisy she grew to hate.

"What great tale are you thinking about this time?" After spending a few more moments imagining herself on the council and how she would look like when she got older, she pulled herself out of her thoughts to see Zena standing next to her.

"Nothing in particular." She didn't feel safe sharing her not so selfless dreams, so she would usually tell Zena some stories she made up in her head. The stories were usually about historic battles and the such, since she knew that subject quite well and could just bring up things on the fly.

Keira propped her head up and stared out the view she had seen a dozen times. From that time a few new tall buildings popped up, blocking up the endless view of the expansive concrete plateau. "I was just thinking about what happened today in class," she told her. "You know, finally being better than the others at something practical makes me feel good. And before you say anything, yes I know that goes against our teachings."

"We're young. We still have time to learn and adapt," Zena reminded her to which Keira nodded. "Is something wrong?" Even though Keira's expression while looking through the window was as blank as it could be, Zena being her only friend, learned how to discern her mood from the smallest detail.

"You're not gonna like it if I tell you," Keira warned her.

"I really want to hear it."

Keira sighed. "I made my decision. I'll work on becoming a Consular."

"So, you want to read books instead of making a difference?" she asked, her irritation obvious.

"It's not about reading books!" Keira protested aloud shooting up from her chair and giving Zena a vicious stare. "This is something I care about and something that I'm actually good at. What good will I do on the battlefield if I can't even swing a wooden stick?" Her yelling gained her a lot of attention from the rest of the girls.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have."

"It's okay." It took a few more seconds for Keira to calm down. "I shouldn't have yelled at you. I know there's a war out there but I'm just not ready."

* * *

2 BTC || 3655 BBY

As expected, Keira wasn't picked to be among those who would travel to Illum to take part in the ancient Jedi tradition called the Gathering where the younglings would take their first proper step towards becoming a Jedi Padawan and later a Jedi Knight, constructing a lightsaber. She scored all the points in the tests and was easily the best out of all the younglings in Force usage, but her fighting let her down as always and it was exactly that which dragged her score down, making her end up on the bottom quarter of the list.

To Keira it felt wrong that such a privilege was tied to some scoring system where only mindless swinging actually meant anything, but she couldn't do anything to oppose it, so she didn't. And it wasn't like it she wasn't expecting it or didn't have any other path to pursue. But on the bright side Zena got to go, so that offered her at least some consolidation. After their small fallout they quickly became friends again and Keira even started shortening her study time, so she could spend time with her which proved to be the best decision which she had made in the last couple of years.

"What color do you think you'll get?" Keira had asked her before she departed with genuine excitement.

"I don't know. If I could choose, I would go for red but we both know what that color represents and how it's even possible for a crystal to be that color."

The crystals which were used to power lightsabers were just as strange and mysterious as the Force. The younglings were sent into a cave with millions of those crystals and they had to find the one which was meant for them. From what the Padawans told them they had to overcome some sort of challenge before the crystal revealed itself to them which Keira first took as an elaborate joke to make them try really hard to try to solve something which didn't need to be solved but once she had heard the same thing in class from a Jedi Master she just had to believe it no matter how unnatural it seemed. Maybe the crystals were a conduit through which the Force could communicate with the Jedi. She would have to wait to prove that theory though.

The reason why red was an impossible color for a Jedi to receive was because the crystals could only emit a red color if a Sith got a hold of them and infused them with the dark side, usually that would include pouring in their anger and fury into the crystal and using those emotions to force out the light and replace it with darkness, corrupting the crystal and turning it into a red color.

"Yellow would look good," Keira offered.

"It would," Zena had agreed. "Anyway, I need to go. The ship leaves in a couple of minutes."

Keira had then decided to go to the area of the Temple where the Consular chambers were. She gave her best shot but it obviously just wouldn't work out. And thankfully for her the Consulars didn't require their newfound members to take part in the Gathering.

The Consular wing of the Temple was pretty much the same as the rest. A grand giant hall led there but once you she went into one of the smaller hallways things became more simple and humble. The grand tapestries and reliefs were replaced by simple vases on stands and small framed artworks.

She wandered those hallways for a while not knowing who to contact or what to even do until she sensed a lifeform behind her. It was another power she had managed to develop on her own months before the rest of her clan even knew it was possible.

"Are you lost, young one?" an old and kind voice asked. "We don't have many younglings coming into this part of the Temple. Did one of the masters send you?" The man's assumptions made sense due to the fact that not many if any younglings knew about the consular even existing and it wasn't like they would be interested in them in any way if they knew.

She turned around and spotted the man who had been talking to her. A tall and surprisingly strong older Weequay.

"No, master. I was actually here to find out if I could join," Keira explained.

"Then you must be Keira. I must say you've turned some heads here especially after what Master Wyellet and some other instructors told us. I am Master Slai-fon the leader of the Consular council. "

"It's an honor," Keira said, bowing.

"If you do wish to become a Consular come with me," he said, turning on his heels. Keira struggled to follow him even while the tall Weequay seemed to walk very slowly. They entered a room with a statue in the middle, with red carpets laid on the floor around it leading to four doorways and fountains in each corner. Slai-fon stopped before the statue and admired it.

"Do you know who this is?" Slai-fon asked with his hands behind his back.

The simple bronzium stature didn't bear a face only a cloak. "No, not really."

"This is the Jedi who bore the rank of Barsen'thor. It was a rank especially made for them for their services to the order. Although their name was forgotten their heroics weren't. What was really fascinating about them was the fact that they mainly used the Force as their main weapon, even to the point where they would keep their lightsaber sheathed during battles. It was this person who put down the foundations of the Consulars."

"That's incredible," Keira said under her breath.

"Indeed, it is. This Jedi also took it to heart to teach their secrets and pass their knowledge onto as many others as they could. They were a true hero of the Order although they did their best to hide it, just like a proper Jedi should." Slai-fon then began moving. Keira took one last look at the statue before following him into one of the four doorways.

"Can you tell me a bit more about what I'll be doing?" Keira asked.

"Depends on what we find out you're strong at. We Consulars heal the wounded Jedi, explore secrets of the Force, uncover new knowledge and mostly instruct younglings. Although we don't get mentioned directly a lot of times, we have many functions," Slai-fon explained. "From what I've been told I think you would be most suited to be put on field research with another master who will act as your mentor."

"And what does field research entail?"

"You will be scouring the galaxy searching for hidden knowledge, artifacts and other such things. The work will require a lot of focus and dedication," Slai-fon told her.

"I am ready to begin whenever, master," she exclaimed confidently.

"Good. Come back here tomorrow then and you will meet your mentor and be sent on your first journey."


	5. Chapter 5

4 BTC || 3559 BBY

Nal Hutta

Nal Hutta. The planet on which Myria had been sold into slavery two years ago. The name translated from Huttese was Glorious Jewel but it was far from that. Although the planet wasn't resource heavy the Hutts still wanted every bit of ore mined so they set up as many mines as they could in a short time which made them dangerous to work in. Well it wasn't like they were worried for the workers anyway. The ore that was brought out from the mines was sent to the various factories to get processed.

After she had been bought, Nem'ro's lieutenant Javis had sent Myria to undergo surgery. She remembered being forced to smell a very strong red powder which nearly knocked her out. Then the surgeon, if he could be called that, proceeded to violently put a knee joint support implant into her right knee. She still wore the scars of her surgery which kept evenly growing as she became taller and taller.

After the surgery was deemed successful, she still experienced pain but was immediately sent to the mines where she would spend days and sometimes even weeks without seeing the polluted yellow sky which she sometimes even began to miss. She had been assigned with carrying the smaller chunks of metal infused rock into carts which she would then push up to the surface alongside other younger and some older girls.

"You know you want to."

"I'm not stupid, Bri," Myria countered, pushing her body against the cart. Bri was the first one that approached her after Myria had been sent to the mines. She was a very rebellious blue Twi'lek and her and Myria never really saw eye to eye but they still became good friends. The worst situations form the most unlikely friendships Bri always told her after Myria asked her why they haven't killed each other yet.

Bri had been bothering her for months to join her plan to bust out of the mine. Myria wanted out but she knew this wasn't the way it should be done.

"A lot of people are going to die if you do this," Myria warned her for the fifteenth time in two days. The frequency of Bri's requests seemed to have exponentially increased which only made her worry more. Something was going to happen soon.

"But those of us who succeed will be free." The first few words came out loudly and passionately, but she managed to quiet herself down when she spotted one of the Gamorrean guards eyeing her weirdly.

Myria shook her head. "I'm not willing to risk it." The two years she had spent in the mines were tough, but she managed to survive, and they even fed them well. She didn't enjoy it or think it was right, but she was afraid of dying. After she had been sold, she made herself a promise that one day she would return home. She was still young and so was her mother, so she was content with waiting it out if things didn't get too gruesome. Although there was a darker side to returning home – her sister. This was all Keira's fault and she wasn't going to let get away with it.

Bri sighed. "Okay, but don't try to join the plan midway through when you see that we're making it."

"I doubt you'll make it far," Myria warned. Even though Bri was a few years older than her and the men and women Myria suspected were in on the plan were of varying ages and strength none of them were a match for the guards. One guard could easily take out half of them before they managed to incapacitate one.

"You'll see," Bri said. Turning around and pushing the cart with her other shoulder she addressed a couple of other Twi'leks in their tongue. Most of the slaves were Twi'leks so Myria was exposed to their language most of the time yet even after years she still wasn't able to comprehend even a bit of it. As they pushed the cart upwards Myria was able to see the group of three Twi'leks Bri was talking to. They seemed to be very nervous which made Myria wary. Could the breakout already be happening? No, Bri wouldn't tell her to join a few hours or even minutes away from it happening. But she became progressively more nervous as she began addressing more and more other Twi'leks on the way to the lift.

"How are you gonna make it to the surface anyway?" Myria asked. The only way to the surface or at least the only way she knew was the minecart lift which was heavily protected and required a keycard to use and even then they probably had some sort of mechanism to disable the lift from the surface. She turned back around but Bri was nowhere to be seen and only a few seconds later yelling began to erupt from deep within the mine and another couple of seconds later the alarm began ringing.

The two guards that were standing there and a couple of others that joined them ignored Myria and instantly ran into the mine with their large axes raised. She walked out of the elevator not knowing what to do that would make it look like she wasn't involved. But that train of thought was cut once she saw that the door to the security room was open. The room was right next to the elevator and had a wide one-way transparisteel window from which the guards that were stationed there observed the slaves bringing in carts. The guards must've forgotten they left it open since the door was made in a way where it would automatically lock upon closing and could only be open with a keycard just like the elevator.

Her curiosity won, and she found herself in the room. The door closed and clicked behind her, confirming that the door had been locked. The light in the room was so weak that only the middle was truly illuminated with most of the light coming in from the tinted window and control panel lights. She smirked when she saw that the keycard for unlocking the door lay on the panel itself.

"Stop them!" A man's voice rang through the speaker on the panel, followed by blaster shots. Myria's heart began pumping viciously as she realized that whatever was happening was heading her way. The blaster fire and shouting became louder and louder until finally a group of Twi'leks entered the elevator alongside Bri. A couple of them managed to secure blasters. They took cover in the corners and behind the cart and began firing towards the guards which were lighting up the elevator. To Myria's surprise Bri pulled out a keycard from under her shirt but just as she approached a panel a stray blaster bolt burned through the circuit, releasing a fountain of sparks. Bri recoiled and immediately threw herself to the ground to avoid the sparks and bolts.

It was then Myria realized that she had a decision to make. She could press the button that would send the elevator upwards and save her friend, but she also pondered a darker thought. If she refused to activate the lift the five Twi'leks would probably end up captured or killed and Myria could then exit the room and say that she closed herself in there after the guards forgot to close the door to prevent them from escaping. It might've earned her an easier job somewhere on the surface.

She shook her head, discarding the thought. Her mother always taught her to be selfless and she couldn't bear the weight of five and probably many more already dead slaves on her shoulders. She was trapped in a room with no way out and the guards probably had another keycard somewhere, so they would eventually find out she did it after they inevitably entered the room and saw her there. They would punish her, no, kill her if they found out but saving the five people who had been working there way longer than her was a worthy cause. She looked through the window at the struggling Twi'leks one more time before punching the button. The gate to the elevator began closing and Twi'leks all looked at each other with faces full of hope.

Myria looked down at the panel once again and spotted a button that was labeled as one-way toggle. She pressed it and the dark tint on the window slowly went away. The gate closed, providing the five of them with safety. They began cheering as Bri stood up and turned around towards the window. Her eyes widened with surprise and Myria could swear she could see her tearing up. As the elevator began ascending and the guards began attempting to knock the security room door down Bri put her hand on the window and from what Myria could discern said "Thank you."

And with that Myria pushed herself against the wall opposite of the door. She slid down to the floor and pulled her knees close to her observing the door as it shook from the impacts of whatever the guards were hitting it with. At any moment another guard with a keycard could arrive and open it and even if that didn't happen she doubted the door would hold against such continuous pressure. But to her surprise after a few minutes the amount of impacts began to lessen and another minute later and a muffled explosion shook the ground and the knocking finally went away. She pulled herself up and sneakily made her way to the door, picking up the keycard on the way.

Putting the card against the panel beside the door it slid open revealing a familiar darkness to her. She hesitantly peeked her head out of the door and breathed a sigh of relief when she realized nobody was close. She managed to slip back deeper into the mine without being noticed.

None of the guards or anybody even after days of the attempted break out occurring said if the slaves made it out or not. To Myria slavery just meant hard work until after the attack when they began cutting their food. It might've been because of the explosion that occurred on that day Myria thought but when she went past the food storage, seeing that it was completely full realized that they were purposely not giving them the same amount of food as before.

Things got even worse after about a week after the attack when all of the slaves were told to gather up at the elevator and get into line.

"What's happening?" Myria was standing towards the back of the line. She attempted to look past the man in front of her but the lights in front of the elevator were too strong, preventing her from seeing what was happening.

"I have no idea, but it can't be anything good," the man in front of her said.

"Attention." The voice rang through her head from multiple directions. The intercom wasn't used at all since she arrived, so it seemed like it was reserved for situations like these. "To ensure your continued cooperation we have been forced to adapt new security measures. Failure to comply with the security personnels' orders will ensure a quick and decisive means of forcing your compliance and obedience. Remember, you own your freedom through work not fighting." The message was obviously meant to discourage any further attempts at escape, but Myria was contempt with waiting.

Myria waited patiently in line as she got closer and closer to the lift. After entering the area where the strong lights were focused, she managed to see what was happening. One by one the slaves were brought forward, and weird devices were placed around their necks. They were then sent down into the mine via a different mineshaft.

She nearly stumbled as a guard pushed her forward towards the lift. A man who didn't look like one of the guards but seemed to be dressed as a higher up observed as a human guard put the metal device around her neck. Myria heard the device power up and with a beep and a small red light lighting up on it, confirmed that it was ready for use. The heavy device made her neck hurt. Putting her hands on it pain shot from her neck all the way down her body, making her fall to the ground, her muscles contracting, preventing her from moving.

After she finally managed to pick herself up her hands instinctively went for the collar again but she managed to stop herself just before touching it again.

"It's all their fault."

"They didn't know this would happen."

It was conversations like these she was exposed to for months. The work shifts became longer and longer, they were given less and less food and the shock collars didn't help morale either. Their freedom of speaking to each other during work was completely taken away and they would regularly get shocked, sometimes just for the amusement of the guards. The remotes that activated the collars were radius based, shocking everybody in the vicinity. The sheer pain of the collars made the not very chatty slaves even less talkative, turning the mine into hollow tunnels of silence where only the occasional scream of pain and screeching of minecarts could be heard and it was only about to get harder for Myria.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

2 BTC || 3655 BBY

Rishi

In some places in the galaxy, the Jedi were viewed as heroes, in other more primitive places even gods while others either hated them, compared them to the darkest, twisted and most evil legends in the galaxy or outright never heard of them. Rishi was one of the places where the populace more than likely never heard of them.

A small tropical world on a remote sector of the Outer Rim, it was pretty much ignored by the Republic and Empire. There were rumors of a civilized populace, but no Jedi were ever sent there. That also wasn't why Keira and Jedi Master Hiram Sartori were sent there.

Shortly after coming back from their first mission together where they visited the Green Jedi Enclave on Corellia to exchange some knowledge they were immediately called up to speak with the Consular Council, which Hiram was a part of.

Despite most of the Consulars not being great warriors, their duty was to help out in the war any way they could. Taking part as healers, trackers, some even being called up to lead troops into battle they had participated in many battles where with their knowledge and patience helped them outplay the mostly antsy and aggressive Sith led

opposition.

"Master Hiram, Keira," Slai-fon had greeted them. The Consular Council only had four members at a time, one permanent while the others were elected every six years.

"Master Slai-fon," Hiram had greeted back. After commending them about their work with the Green Jedi - Hiram was one of the few that was on good terms with them, he had given them a short description of what they would be doing.

"Several Jedi stationed on Scarif have sensed an odd disturbance recently," Slai-fon had begun. "A small disturbance in the Force not inherently dark or light interestingly enough. I doubt the Sith will care about it as it does seem insignificant and I wouldn't bother you about it usually but since you are accompanied by young Keira here, I think you should at least take a look." Despite the fact that she was under the tutelage of a Jedi Master she still wasn't officially deemed to be a Jedi due to not completing the trials however she didn't mind it nearly as much as she did in the beginning.

To become a Padawan initiates had to partake in three trials. The first was memorizing the Jedi Code, the second building your own lightsaber and the third was usually a combat simulation where blindfolded younglings were tasked with finding something while being attacked. The Force-centered parts of the trials Keira had no doubt she could do but there was always one thing she was missing, a lightsaber.

"Why are there Jedi on Scarif?" Hiram had asked.

"A small strike force set for Ryloth. That's all I've been told. The Jedi there have pinpointed the disturbance. It seems to be coming from a small nearby tropical island called Rishi."

And so, it was that they were sent to Rishi. The vibrant blue and green color of the planet managed to amaze her even from space when she first lay eyes on it. It kept getting better as even more colors began appearing the closer, they got to the surface.

"Keira could you please check the weapons systems." Hiram was a wise old human hailing from Corellia. His frame was weak to the point where it looked like he would have trouble carrying himself, but instead of weakness, Keira could always sense his strength. Perhaps he was hiding it for the right moment she thought. She also noted it was the first time the older man wasn't accompanied by his signature faint smile, confirming her thoughts that Hiram was sensing potential danger.

She quickly brought up the weapons systems status onto the display in front of her. She ran diagnostics and all lights lit up green. "Everything seems to be in order. Is something wrong master?"

"Over the years I have visited many planets like this not knowing what to expect. I got captured once, shot down a couple of times and a couple of times…" he paused for a moment, frowning and a moment later returning to a neutral expression. "No, it was actually only once that I got a nice welcome. I even got a proper meal."

The only thing she sometimes got annoyed by was her master's reminiscing of the past. Although his stories were sometimes interesting, she usually took those opportunities to retreat into her thoughts. She liked to think about many things, the past not being one of them. It still shook her to the bone whenever she thought about what she had done, and the feeling of guilt was only becoming stronger and stronger.

She was pulled out of her thoughts when she spotted a wide platform with what seemed like buildings on top of it in the distance. The town didn't seem like much from far away and proved to be just that up close. Being mostly made out of wood and sheets of different metals the buildings and platform seemed like they would fall apart any moment. The platform was located in a cove with a cliff hanging over it in some parts.

Hiram landed the ship on one of the slightly raised circular wooden platforms which he deemed to be a landing pad. Keira was already standing in the cargo bay in the back of the ship when the ramp began to lower, revealing the blinding sunlight and the hot air. Her Jedi tunic wasn't the proper choice of clothing, but it wasn't hot to the point where it was unbearable.

From higher up, the people there looked like the people on Coruscant only dressed in less glamorous clothing but looking at them from the same level revealed various blasters swung over their shoulders, in holsters and some even in the owner's hands. Whatever this place was called it wasn't very lawful Keira noted, so she stayed on top of the ramp and observed the various species passing the ship. It was the usual array of humanoid species from Humans, Weequays, Nautolans, Mirialans, Zabraks and there were also a few rarer species. The ones that especially caught her attention were a red-skinned man with two puncturing out of his forehead, one of them broken and a weird species of bird-like people.

"This doesn't seem right," she said to herself, observing the armed crowd.

"Because it isn't," Hiram commented from behind her. "Stay close," he said passing her, heading down the ramp.

"What is this place?" Keira asked her master, following closely behind while looking out for trouble in all directions.

"I have a couple of ideas," her master responded, continuing to walk towards an open gateway that led into the city.

"Stop right there!"

Hiram and Keira turned around to see a couple of men standing there. One had a rusted blaster rifle held firmly in his hands while the other was standing on his left, his right hand on his belt while his other hand was placed on his holstered blaster pistol.

"How may we help you?" Hiram asked kindly, putting his hands together in front of him at hip level.

"All new arrivals must pay a landing fee," the man with the blaster pistol said dryly.

"You must be confused, sir. There is no sign or anything that would signify or in any way imply that I would have to pay."

Both of the men became visibly annoyed and the one who spoke earlier took a step forward, now being within breathing distance of Hiram. "You'll pay when we say it." His left hand twitched, but he managed to hold himself back from whatever he planned about doing.

"There is no need to get aggressive," Hiram said calmly.

"Are you playing with me old man?" he asked threateningly, leaning forward and getting even closer.

"Oh no. I simply wish for you to take a swim and cool down," Hiram said, gently waving his left arm to the right in front of their faces.

"You simply wish for us to take a swim and cool down," the man repeated. A moment later they both turned around and headed off. Keira couldn't help but laugh.

"What was that?" she managed to ask after calming down.

"Jedi mind trick young one. Works exceptionally against the weak minded." He paused for a second. "And idiots." His smile grew even bigger for a few seconds. Then he put his hands behind his back and continued onward in their original direction.

Beyond the low wall which separated the landing pads from the city lay a marketplace. Vendors selling various food, clothing, weapons and there was even a speeder vendor although his collection of vehicles was mostly decrepit and old, probably good enough for one ride if the buyer didn't care about repairing it before use.

"What are we looking for?" Keira asked as they stood by a stand.

"A local," Hiram answered turning his attention to the stand owner.

One of those birdlike people, his stand was filled with many exotic fruits, probably homegrown.

"Good day to you friend," Hiram greeted.

The stand owner looked at Hiram for a second, tilting its head to the right. "Good day to you friend." Its speech was fast and erratic.

"Why did it just repeat what you said?" Keira asked in confusion.

"I'm sorry for the confusion. It's our way of learning new languages. I have never been greeted like before. Most of the folks in town aren't that nice," it explained. "I'm Rizva. How may I help you?"

"We have a couple of questions," Hiram said.

"Ask away then," Rizva said, waving his right feathered hand for emphasis.

"Where are we? Our map doesn't have much information about Rishi."

"You're in Raider's Cove friend, the main hub of piracy in the sector," Rizva said, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. If what she could discern from Rizva could apply to any other member of his species, they probably didn't have many problems with the pirates and got along pretty well.

"That confirms my assumption." Hiram usually began supporting his chin with his left hand whenever he was deep in thought. This was one of these moments. "How long has this place been here?"

"Many years. Ever since the Nova Blades crashed on this planet. They were the ones that set up this place. At first, it was just a small village but now look at it," Rizva explained.

"Do they cause you any trouble?" Keira asked him.

"No, no. We like all foreigners as long as they respect us and our privacy."

It relieved her that the pirates weren't causing problems for the local species. Rizva seemed very happy and Keira couldn't blame him. The planet was beautiful, the weather was great and even though the place was a hub for pirates it wasn't overrun with drunkards and besides their early encounter she hadn't seen any other attempt at robbery or anything else, there wasn't even a blaster misfire yet. And it wasn't like she knew from personal experience what pirate towns were like, most of what she knew was from the stories of Padawans back at the Temple who sometimes made their stories more dramatic for added wow effect, gaining them more respect from the younglings. Albeit their teachings told them to not seek fame and such Keira couldn't blame them. After all it was natural to seek attention and the need for it was much bigger due to them being forbidden from forming attachments.

"Do you know of any weird or supernatural events that might've transpired recently?" Hiram asked.

Rizva thought for a long moment. "No, nothing unnatural. But the wildlife outside the town has been getting more aggressive every week, it's now at a point where I have to pay foreigners for transport to get home."

"Is there somebody who would know a bit more about this in town?"

"The cantina probably," Rizva answered, chirping all of the sudden. "The most popular one is directly down that way," he added pointing to what seemed like the main street through town if wooden planks could be counted as streets.

"Thank you for your help, friend." Hiram pulled a couple of credits out of his pocket and put them on the stand before Rizva.

"Thank you for your help, friend," Rizva repeated. "Goodbye," he said waving his right hand.

They turned and headed down the street Rizva pointed out to them. The poorly built buildings scared Keira, making her look up constantly. If any of the buildings collapsed, and it looked like it could happen at any point it would probably mean the death of a lot of people.

She almost fell as the straight wooden platform transformed into a ramp and the row of large buildings ended, making way for solid ground, smaller buildings, another market, and a warehouse. All of those areas were built around a lake and were connected by more wooden pathways.

They asked a local, another pirate, about the whereabouts of the cantina. Despite the town being relatively calm, the pirates didn't let their guard down, always carrying their blasters and having friends close by just in case. They seemed to be especially wary of strangers and newcomers.

Following the pirate's instructions, Hiram all of the sudden stopped as they cleared past the warehouse. "Somebody's watching us," he said carefully trying to not alert their supposed stalker. Hiram turned to face her. He was looking away from the warehouse towards Keira. "Use the Force to try and sense him. Usually, it's easy to sense somebody if they're directing all their attention to you."

She closed her eyes and opened herself up to the Force. Her powers were mostly still limited to pushing and grabbing, but she was also learning how to sense force signatures, and this was as good as time as any to practice. She could sense many signatures around her. Those signatures were very weak, but one stood out. Due to her inexperience and lack of practice in that certain field, she wasn't able to pinpoint the person's location but she was able to point herself in the general direction. "He's either in or around that warehouse."

"Good," Hiram said satisfied with her answer. "We can't turn around because we've already passed it, so we will continue on. Be on the lookout," he added moving again.

" _The Sunken Sarlacc"_ the board in front of the cantina read. As expected even early in the day pirates were pouring out of the cantina drunk. They were about to enter the cantina when a hand grabbed her by the shoulder.

"You're too young for a place like this," her master warned. "Remain here."

"Of course, master," she said inclining her head and moving out of the way. She watched her master enter and disappear into the darkness of the cantina. She was left alone on a world she didn't know while being followed by somebody, but it was still probably better than being in there.

It would probably take a while for her master to return so she considered her options. She could stand there or find someplace to sit and wait… and that was when she spotted it. An exotic animal seller. As she got closer to the cages she could see that the birds of various colors the man there was selling were only a couple of months old, probably stolen from their nests and families.

She approached the cage which was the furthest away from the stand owner and took a closer look at the animal. The animal was definitely avian but from its size and the size of its wings, it was pretty apparent that it couldn't fly. At the sight of Keira the blue Orobird – she read that name from a sign on the stand so she guessed that was what the species were called – rammed itself against the opposite side of the cage, obviously being scared.

The bird made enough noise to attract the attention of the owner. "Hey, what are you doing?"

"Just looking at the birds," Keira said innocently taking a step back. The owner eyed her for a couple more seconds before turning his attention to something else.

Keira shifted her focus back on the blue Orobird. Similar to the others it was as high as her knees with a large gray beak. The little bird was still pushing itself into the opposite side of the cage trying to create as much space between itself and Keira. Keira in return used the Force once again, this time attempting to calm the bird down. Sending soothing emotions through the Force, it seemed to calm the bird down. It began approaching her and chirping, even putting its beak through the space between bars to allow her to stroke it.

Keira couldn't help but smile at the sight. She looked around towards the other cages and saw the other Orobirds were looking at her with a measure of confusion and intrigue it seemed like. Looking at the poor caged creatures she couldn't not feel bad. The poor little things would probably never get to be free… unless she did something about it.

She turned her attention to the cages themselves. The locking mechanism consisted of a small metal bar that was put in between the cage and the door of the cage. She applied minimum force and it slid off, unlocking the cage. She then tested how much pressure would be needed to open the cage. The bird not knowing what was happening remained still and observed her with interest. She then removed the metal bars from all the other cages before retreating behind a nearby stack of boxes.

She took a deep breath to help calm herself. Pointing her arms toward the cages she focused on the cage doors. She swung both of her arms to the right and all the cages popped open at once. It took the birds a moment to realize what happened but when they finally did they burst out at the same time, running towards the jungle. The stand owner who was a bit on the chubbier side attempted to chase them but gave up almost instantly due to the speed of the small avians. His clenched his fists, his whole body shaking from either anger or fear. This could've been the man's way of living Keira thought but she knew she did the right thing. Those little birds deserved to be free.

A hand landed on her right shoulder and she turned, seeing her master looking off into the distance where the birds were still visible as they ran. "I see you've kept yourself busy," he said with a smile.

"Quite a talented apprentice you have there," a deep voice said from behind them.

Hiram turned around, Keira doing so a moment later. A tall middle-aged man with short brown hair, wearing a gray T-shirt and cargo pants stood there, with a blaster strapped to his belt. "Agent Jackson, Strategic Information Services," he introduced himself with a hint of a smile on his face.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Agent Jackson, as it turned out, was sent to Rishi after the Jedi on Scarif sensed the disturbance which was odd since a Jedi would've had way more luck with actually knowing if something was happening especially if whatever the disturbance was wasn't existent and noticeable on the physical plain of existence.

"Why did they send you specifically?" Hiram had asked him on the way back to their ship.

"They sent me here because I wasn't part of the strike force. I was just there to provide them with the proper equipment and then I got assigned to check stuff out here," he had explained.

"Did you find anything?"

"Yes, but let's get to your ship before we continue speaking," he had said, eyeing the locals. The reason why he hadn't approached them instantly as he had stated was because he had thought they might be spies working for the Empire which wasn't a far-fetched idea in wartime.

After they arrived safely at the ship, they continued their talk. "Now that I can talk," the agent began. "The situation here is odd to say the least. There's nothing really mystical or force-y going on from what I could tell but the wildlife does behave weirdly from what I've been able to gather from the locals."

"May I inquire how?" Hiram asked as he sat down on the pilot chair. Jackson sat down next to him while Keira stood a couple of steps behind them listening carefully.

"There are these unusual behavioral patterns coming from the animals. At random intervals, it can take hours, days or even weeks for it to happen again, every animal will all of the sudden become aggressive towards every other animal or living being for a couple of minutes," Jackson explained.

"Did you witness it happen?" Hiram asked.

"Yes. I've been here for three days and it happened twice. There's no sing that it's about to happen it just does. I almost got my hand torn off by baby jungle sleen," Jackson explained waving around his scarred right hand.

"Something Force-related has to be causing this. I don't think there is any way to control such a different assortment of wildlife without some sort of implant," Keira added.

"That begs the question what is actually causing all of this?" Hiram asked himself mostly. Being a man with a lot of experience with Force related phenomenon he might've had a couple ideas about what would be causing this.

Keira also had a couple of ideas, but when she wanted to word them, she found herself unable to do so. She felt her body begin to move on its own and when she attempted to control herself nothing happened. She found herself falling into a pit of darkness a moment later.

 _She opened her eyes to the soft feeling of sand underneath her. She stood up and wiped the excess sand off her before taking a look around. A large platform of sand with no elevation difference that seemed to stretch into eternity._

" _What the…" she said to herself when a sudden powerful force presence appeared out of nowhere. This presence was turbulent and unstable, moving location every time she tried to sense it. She began turning to try and find whatever it was that was there with her._

 _And then she spotted it…_

" _No…"_

 _There in the sand stood a young Togruta shrouded in a dark mist. Even though the misty figure had no special features which would make it different from the rest Keira knew who it was. Myria, but her figure seemed older._

" _What do you want from me?" Keira screamed at her. She had been working for so long to get rid of the bad memories and the pain they brought her but whenever she nearly managed to forget something would make her remember and she would feel the pain of her actions all over again._

 _Instead of responding the misty figure began moving towards Keira. Keira didn't know if she should run or attempt to face the figure head on but before she could make a decision, she noticed that she was once again unable to move. With the image of Myria approaching, her heart began pounding and her body trembling._

 _The figure stopped in front of her and looked directly at her for a few seconds. Then it extended its right hand and touched Keira's shoulder. Once again darkness filled her vision, followed by a blinding white flash after which she found herself in a familiar setting. The cave._

 _Just like back then when she first experienced this vision she attempted as hard as she could to resist but to no avail. Her body began moving for her and after Myria pushed her and she recovered she closed her eyes, hoping to not see her failure again. But instead of the push nothing happened and after a while she opened her eyes and spotted the same misty figure standing in front of her._

 _Keira had her arms extended as if she was about to push Myria down to her demise once again, but instead of that the figure grabbed her hand and threw her down into the cavern instead. As she was falling, she noticed that the blue-colored cavern began slowly turning red until eventually she hit the water._

 _She opened her eyes again and found herself in yet another setting. This time a burning village. She heard a familiar hum and upon feeling that something was in her hand, looked down in horror. A crimson lightsaber was held firmly in her hand, a freshly impaled body beneath her._

" _No!" She protested. The few moments of control she had were taken away again when her body began moving instead of her. Looking in the direction of where her body was going, she saw an older lady clawing her way away. Keira knew what she was about to do so she closed her eyes and waited for the sound of her lightsaber impaling the older woman._

A few short moments later while still having her eyes closed she felt immense pressure pushing her down. She attempted to resist but to no avail. Her body still trembling and her breathing and heartbeat still astronomically fast she finally opened her eyes to find the concerned faces of Hiram and Agent Jackson staring down at her, each holding her down by a different shoulder.

"Keira are you alright?" Hiram asked loosening his grip and shaking her slightly.

She swallowed hard before speaking. "Yes." Her voice was barely audible and high pitched. After the two men both got up and stepped away, she was able to pull herself up into a sitting position. She ran her right hand down her face slowly and attempted to calm herself. "What happened?" she asked the two men, her voice now slowly returning to normal.

The same thing that's happening to the animals," Hiram began. "I'm sure that whatever it is is deeply connected with the dark side of the Force."

"What makes you think so?" Keira said slowly getting up. She felt dizzy for a few moments but she managed to keep herself up.

"When all this happened, I was able to resist it. It seems like whatever is causing this used to be neutral in the Force but is now slowly growing darker each time it happens," Hiram deducted. "You as it seems weren't able to resist it and you lost control for a short amount of time."

A couple of seconds? To Keira it felt like her vision lasted for minutes but she knew that visions worked differently so she didn't question it.

"But there is also good news," Hiram said lifting his pointer finger. "I have managed to pinpoint the direction where the disturbance is coming from. We shall head there next," he continued enthusiastically, his signature smile coming back.

Keira's heart sank. She didn't want to experience the same vision or even worse again, yet her master was so enthusiastic about continuing their search. "Master I think it would be best if we call for backup and leave."

"From what I can tell proper backup is far away kid," Jackson said. "The strike team has already been sent out days ago and as far as I know there is no other Republic installation close enough to provide help."

Hiram took two steps forward and lowered himself to her level. "The path of a learner is to face challenges greater than them. This is that challenge. Yes, it may be dangerous but that is the life of a Jedi. Welcome this challenge and face it head on. That will make you better."

It still didn't feel right but she knew her master was right. If she just kept to lifting rocks and reading books she would never improve. She needed a real challenge, so she did was she was taught to do, push her feelings aside and do her duty. "Okay. I'm ready."

"Good. Then we should be heading off now."

And so, within a couple of long minutes they were already high above the ground where Keira could felt a bit safer. "Master, why did we take the ship?"

"When I felt the disturbance it felt distant, far too distant to be within walking distance of the city," he answered. Agent Jackson had received another mission from command and was unable to join them. "Open that compartment to your left," he said looking towards it.

Keira followed his gaze and upon pressing the button that opened up the compartment got surprised by its contents. A couple of blasters and thermal detonators. Keira looked at Hiram not knowing how to respond.

"Do not worry," he assured her. He could sense her confusion even while focusing on flying and looking out the front viewport. "This is standard equipment. Every Jedi ship has this just in case something goes awry on a mission. And since we're heading into territory filled with predators it would be wise to have a weapon."

"But I've never used a blaster," Keira protested. She took the smallest blaster from the top-most compartment. The surprisingly cold metal grip shook her slightly, almost making her grip on the blaster slip. Despite being the smallest blaster pistol on offer it was still too big and heavy for her to effectively use with one hand and there was another problem – she had nowhere to put it.

"There should be a backpack in the compartment next to that one," Hiram said all of the sudden.

"Master, are you reading my mind?" Such and ability awed her and annoyed her at the same time. Having the power to read other people's thoughts must've been fun to have but she felt really annoyed about Hiram doing it without her approval.

"Then you should protect your thoughts better," Hiram commented with a smirk.

She had to stand up to get to the compartment because the chairs didn't have the ability to turn around. She dragged the backpack out and put the blaster inside it carefully before sitting back down and putting the backpack down next to her chair. "How do I prevent you from reading my mind?"

"You must develop your bond with the Force further. Once you can feel the flow of the Force without much effort you will easily sense any intrusions even when you least expect them, like when I did it to you just now."

"And how do I read people's thoughts?"

"It is pretty simple," he said, pausing for a long moment after. "Try it. My thoughts are open."

Keira squinted her eyes at him in confusion. That wasn't much to go on at all, but she knew where to begin. She turned on her side and extended her right arm towards Hiram's head, focusing on it. She began seeing weird distorted shapes and hearing similarly distorted sound. The distortion slowly let away as she focused harder and opened herself up to the Force more. "Are you seriously thinking about fruit now or is it just part of the test?"

"A healthy lifestyle leads to a clearer mind," he said dedicating a short happy stare at her.

"It sure does," she said smiling back at him.

Another hour or so of flying later Keira spotted another settlement, this time way smaller and simpler. Hiram landed the ship on a flat surface, deeming it to be a landing zone due to the burned and dead grass. The ramp extended downwards towards the ground, revealing a long line of different huts and tents, with many lit torches lighting the pathway down into the jungle.

"It seems like we have stumbled upon a village of natives," Hiram deduced seeing the many bird people going about their day. There were even a couple of ones that were about Keira's size running about playing.

"Hello travelers," one of the natives greeted them cheerfully. "How may I help you?"

"Have the animals been behaving weirdly around here?" Hiram asked.

"Oh yes, they have attacked our village multiple times. Forced us to put more guards on duty to protect the young ones."

"Do you know what might be causing this?" Hiram said, inquiring further on the matter.

Keira in the meantime took to examining the village. A small neat plantation of palm trees from which was probably used to grow some type of fruit which they then sold in Raider's cove. The village was also completely deprived of any form of technology.

"Nope. But some of the guards said there were some weird sounds coming from deeper in the jungle. Blaster fire mostly."

"Thank you for your help. I won't take any more of your time," Hiram said. The native nodded and left them.

"Come on Keira," Hiram said as he began heading down the path. Keira took one last look at the kids who were peeking their heads from behind one of the simple huts, their gazes following her and her master as they headed into the jungle.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

2 BTC || 3655 BBY

Pain and unending rage were what filled Myria's life for years to come. The guards didn't care about the age or condition of the slaves they just kept inflicting pain wherever and whenever they could. It even got worse when it was announced that the mine was closing due to almost all of the valuable material being excavated. Having no other place to put them Nem'ro had decided that the guards could do as they wished with the slaves until the mine closed down. At that point, those who survived would be sold off.

Myria hated absolutely everything and everyone in that mine. She had been tortured for fun multiple times and what was even worse was that when people began figuring out that it was a race for survival, they began turning on each other. Backstabbing their best friends which sometimes led to their death. Every bit of compassion that was left in those poor people was gone.

Myria had been ratted out multiple times and that's how she began hating the other slaves. She over time turned from a person that cared about the other slaves and wanted the best for them to a person that didn't care for their lives. She had gotten multiple people killed over the years. The first time she had done it was when she had stolen food and later after the guards found out about it blamed it on one of her close friends. The first time she did it, it paralyzed her. But every death after that was less and less impactful until it got to the point, she actually began enjoying it. All the years of pain and suffering had twisted her into something she had never wanted to become, a monster.

* * *

"We thank you for investing in our business." Myria's glance immediately shifted to the two people that were conversing. She dropped the rocks she was carrying in her bag and silently moved closer.

"Your resources have proven really useful in my family's business," A Cathar woman with white fur said. Myria had seen her once briefly years ago when she visited the mine.

"I hope we can continue our ventures in different departments." Immediately upon noticing that the woman was talking to the mine's director, a fat old human, she dug her nails deep into her palm to the point where it would've hurt her if she hadn't been overcome with rage. The director was singlehandedly responsible for the collars and every other "measure" that was employed in the mine.

" _If I could just,"_ she said to herself through gritted teeth. She reached out with her right arm simulating how she would strangle him if she could.

Strangely the old decrepit piece of filth began scratching his neck and after a few moments he coughed a couple of times.

"Is everything alright?" the Cathar woman asked.

"Yes." He got interrupted by a cough. "I'm fine," he added finally breaking free from the sudden slight strangling sensation.

Myria hid back behind the corner and looked down at her hands. " _What the…?"_ She was all of the sudden pushed forward by one of the slaves who accidentally bumped into her, causing his load of precious materials and Myria flying around the corner.

"How incompetent," the director said pulling a remote out of his pocket.

Myria looked at him, her eyes wide from fear when the sudden jolt of electricity sent waves of pain through her body. Her anger reached its peak at that moment. She slammed her fist on the rocky ground, sending a wave of lightning all around her. The wave hit the director and the woman pushing them back a little.

"No more," Myria said, tears dripping from her eyes as she supported herself on her hands and knees.

"Guards!" the director called out and only seconds later she was flanked by two Gamorreans with axes. "Dispose of her," he said, waving his hand dismissively.

One of the Gamorreans had already lifted his axe high up in the air when the Cathar women called out "Don't!". The Gamorreans looked at her in confusion, discussing something amongst themselves in their weird language.

She helped Myria on her feet. "What are you doing?" the director called out as he ran towards her.

"I'll buy her," the woman said to Myria's surprise, but she was too weak to react.

"You'll buy her? Are you crazy?" the director protested.

"Fifty thousand credits," the woman said right after him. "Right now."

"Okay," the director instantly responded, dropping all signs of protest. Myria wished to punch the old pig in the face but was unable to do so as even standing still caused her pain. So much pain that she eventually collapsed.

* * *

A sudden dizziness overcame Keira. She stumbled to the ground, her whole body paralyzed for a few moments.

"Is everything alright?" Hiram asked, getting down on one knee beside her as she began pulling herself upward.

She put her right hand on her forehead. "It is now," she said shaking her head to hopefully get rid of the dizziness. She did sometimes experience similar things but on a way weaker scale, usually just a feeling of something touching her. but this time it was much more prominent.

"You must be tired," Hiram assumed. They had been trekking through the jungle for hours without stopping and the sun was now setting. He looked around for a suitable place to set up camp. "Come." He stood up and walked off the path and through some bushes. She followed him and sat down with her back towards the tree.

"Rest," he told her.

"What will you do, master?" She asked him. Being an old man, he probably needed more rest than her.

"I shall meditate. It may not be as efficient as sleep, but I have gone days without rest, so don't worry about me," Hiram assured her.

* * *

Early the next morning they set off once again towards the disturbance. Hiram had told her that he sensed a disturbance in the middle of the night, telling her that it was close.

Up until that point the path had been marked with signs that pointed towards various villages but now, they were alone. The wide dirt path narrowed considerably and soon, Keira thought, they would go off it into the depths of the jungle. But the path wasn't the only thing that changed. The trees transformed from mostly palm trees to large constructs of nature reaching far up into the sky and blocking out the sunlight.

Keira stretched out with the Force, sensing hundreds of Force signatures around her. She was admiring, to her, unknown animals in the distance when she suddenly bumped into her master. He stood there like a stone, not even moving a muscle.

All of a sudden, he pushed her, making her fall to the ground. In a state of confusion, she looked around at what could've startled her master like that when she saw a fresh blaster mark still letting out smoke in a tree next to her. She then turned her attention back to her master who had his green lightsaber in his hands, deflecting more incoming blaster bolts.

Keira rolled into the shrubbery on the right side of the path trying to spot the attackers. Five men with rifles, each hiding behind a different tree, were shooting at her master with blaster rifles.

Her master at first had no trouble deflecting the bolts but as the concentration of them steadily increased he began to have trouble keeping up.

Now needing to act, Keira made up a plan. Two of the attackers stayed back while the three others dashed at Hiram. Obviously, whoever these people were had never seen a Jedi, but that was no reason to not be cautious. Now that Keira thought about it, the two shooters that remained further back positioned themselves in a way where they could shoot at Hiram's sides. That combined with the fact that he would have to defend against three people rushing would surely be a recipe for disaster.

So, using the fact that the attackers didn't know where she was, she stretched out her left arm from her prone position. She focused on the shooter that was furthest to the left. Grabbing a hold of his arms she was able to direct the next couple of shots more to the right. She wasn't able to control his hands for more than a couple of seconds due to her not having the ability to calm herself completely. Who could blame her? It was her first fight and she was only ten.

Looking back at the incoming attackers she noticed that one of them had been shot in the back. Her first kill or was it?

" _No! I didn't kill her!"_.

She didn't know how to feel but she had to remain strong. Focusing her attention back on the fight she again caught sight of the now two men that were dashing at her master. She again used the Force but this time using it to freeze one of the attacker's legs in place making them fall to the ground. Her master quickly disposed of the now lone attacker that was rushing him and immediately after deflected one of the distant bolts right back at one of the distant attackers. The other long-range attacker then turned on his heels and attempted to run away but Keira was able to get a hold of his leg, dropping him to the ground. Meanwhile, the one she forcefully tripped earlier stood up and continued his attack only to be cut down with a simple slash of Hiram's lightsaber.

"Well done Keira," Hiram said clipping his lightsaber back on his belt. "We should see what our friend has to say about this."

About fifteen seconds later they were flanking the last live attacker who was now sitting at the base of a tree, disarmed. "What are you doing out here and why did you attack us?" Hiram asked.

"We hunt exotic animals," their prisoner said with no resistance at all. The battle must've instilled a sense of fear and intimidation. "This business is very expensive and dangerous to maintain. We thought you were hunters and so we took the opportunity to get rid of some competition. You know, get some more credits for ourselves, but as it turns out we had no idea what we were facing."

"You truly didn't," Keira commented. "What do we do with him master?"

"Get out of here." She couldn't believe it. This man and his now dead friends were killing and capturing innocent creatures. He should've either suffered the same fate or went to prison.

"But…"

"Keira what you are thinking about is revenge. And revenge leads people down a dark path," her master said gesturing the man to go. He got up without another word and ran away. "Jedi do not execute unarmed men."

She ignored the fact that her master read her mind again and instead focused on the current subject. "But shouldn't he be punished for what he did? And what if he comes back with more people?" she asked.

"If he comes back? Then the cycle continues, but I doubt he has anybody to return to and I don't think he'll be hunting anytime soon." But that still didn't make sense to Keira. That man would eventually return to what he had been doing and there would be nobody to stop him. "We should keep moving. I sense we're close."

Keira stretched out with the Force trying to sense the darkness. She managed to do so, but she again couldn't pinpoint the source.

Her feet got heavier with every step she took. They were now close to the source and the power of the dark side was getting stronger by the meter. She felt as if something was trying to get into her head and she could swear that she heard whispering and saw shadows watching her and her master from the trees and bushes.

"Master, I don't think I can go on anymore," she said disappointedly. The frequency of these events was only increasing, and she became more and more afraid every time something like that happened.

"Perhaps it is a task too tall for someone as young as you," her master conceded. Keira could see how interested he was to see what was causing these weird events, but she could also sense just a tiniest bit of worry which from what she knew about him didn't seem natural.

"Who walks these parts without my permission!" a high-pitched voice suddenly called out. "Show yourself."

The voice seemed to be coming from behind a wall of high bushes. "What do we do?" Keira asked silently.

"We introduce ourselves." Before Keira could protest Hiram had already disappeared into the bushes. She followed him with an agitated growl. Once she finally came out of the sea of thick bushes she was met by a small clearing with a weird tree in the middle. It was completely different to all the others being way larger and a bit taller than any other. Keira was pretty sure she could live in there comfortably. A wooden walkway was built on top of the tree just below where it began to branch off. That is where an old frail man stood, wearing a wooden helmet.

"Who dares to walk on the sacred grounds of Naga Sadow?" he attempted to say menacingly but his voice almost made Keira laugh.

"Naga Sadow?" Keira asked quietly, standing slightly behind and to the side of Hiram.

"An ancient Sith lord that's been dead for about a thousand years now," Hiram explained before turning his attention to the old man. "Oh, great Naga Sadow, we are pilgrims seeking your knowledge."

"Knowledge? Knowledge needs to be earned not given," he said threateningly.

A sudden wave of dark side energy hit Keira again but this time she managed to resist it. A few moments later howling could be heard coming from the jungle. It took another couple of seconds for those animals to start pouring into the clearing from the jungle. Keira was expecting some sort of wolf-like animal but instead, the howlers kept to the forest and instead three Zeldrates appeared. Large lizard-like creatures that upon noticing Keira and Hiram began immediately dashing towards them while hissing aggressively.

Keira rolled off to the side, evading the one that attacked her while her master was once again forced to take out his lightsaber and attack the Zeldrates. The lone Zeldrate that attacked her was the youngest out of the three judging by its size, but it was no less ferocious or fast. Keira was only able to take off her backpack when she sensed something odd. She moved out of the way but her left leg still got grazed by the Zeldrate's claws. Then she was forced to evade once again after she managed to pull the blaster pistol out of the backpack. She would've liked to have used the Force to at least steer the creature off path and make its recovery longer but she was far too young and untrained to have any power over a creature with the strength it possessed.

She took aim at the approaching Zeldrate but she got swept to the ground by the tail of one of the other two. She managed to just barely roll away from the incoming attack. Now laying on her stomach she aimed at the animal once again as it turned and shot. The first shot hit its front left leg, making it stumble a bit, with the subsequent shots dealing more damage until it dropped to the ground and remained there, lifeless.

She walked over to the dead animal, holding her hot and smoking blaster in her left hand. She didn't feel bad for the people that attacked them as they did it of their own free will but with these animals it was different. Whatever the source of the dark side energy was it was bending their minds, forcing them into a constant aggressive state.

"Are you alright?" Hiram asked her. She hadn't even noticed or bothered to look if her master had managed to defeat the animals that attacked them.

"I'm fine," she said without any emotion in her voice.

"Well done!" The old man began jumping around on the walkway and cheering confirming to Keira that he was insane. "Come closer. Tell me this knowledge you seek."

"Keira, I think whatever is causing this is inside that tree," Hiram said, quieting down just a bit so the old man couldn't hear them. "There seems to be an entrance right in front of us. Do you see it?"

Keira spotted the small crack that was overgrown with vines. It was too big for Hiram but from that distance it looked as if it was the perfect size for her. "Yes, I see it."

"I'm going to distract him while you sneak around and get in."

It was exactly this plan that she feared. The tree being the source was undeniable now. The power of the dark side got exponentially bigger with every step she took towards it. Her gut feeling told her to protest but they were too far now to just turn away because she was afraid.

Hiram then turned back to the crazed old man. "We seek knowledge about an artifact. I will send my apprentice to go get it."

"Ooh… Artifacts you say. Bring them to me," the old man demanded.

Keira turned on her heels and ran back into the bushes. She moved a bit to the side and peeked through the bushes. Hiram and the old man were in a conversation, so she decided to move even further to the side until she couldn't see the man on the walkway any longer. Then she ran back to the tree and carefully navigated around it, staying as close as she could, keeping the walkway directly above her.

She got to the small slit in the tree. If the Force was visible the dark side would quite literally be pouring out of the tree and into the jungle, it was so strong. Keira took a deep breath and stepped forth. The further she went the tighter the space became, but that wasn't the only thing that came with going deeper into the tree. If she thought she heard some sort of weird whispering before she definitely was now. Multiple voices coming from all directions seemingly wanting to force themselves inside her head. It got to the point where her ears and head began hurting.

From the corner of her eye she spotted a weak purple glow close by. She pushed herself forward for the last couple of meters, bursting out into the center of the hollow tree. She could sense the dark side going around her like a tornado.

In the center of the tree, entangled by vines that had turned into a purple color was the source of light. What it actually was Keira couldn't discern as the vines enclosed it completely, only letting some of the purple glow out. She reluctantly moved closer. She reached out with her arm to move the vines out of the way but upon touching them the glow became stronger. She instinctively removed her hand and took a couple of steps backwards.

The glow began emitting strange streaks of purple that began forming something – somebody. As the mass grew larger and larger it suddenly exploded revealing…

"No. Not again." Keira was practically pleading at that point for it to stop. Out of the whirlwind of purple energy stepped out Myria, looking exactly like she did on that day when Keira pushed her off the cliff.

"Hello sister."

Keira was left speechless. The manifestation of dark side energy looked and nearly sounded like her sister, only that her voice seemed like it was a mixture of her own and all the different whispers.

"You did this to me…" Myria said in a sad tone looking down at herself.

"I didn't…"

"You killed me!"

"I…"

"You're no Jedi. You are a murderer."

"No!" Fear and guilt pushed Keira over the edge. She reached out with her right arm and shot a powerful blast of Force energy, aimed at Myria. The manifestation collapsed, and the glow became so powerful it blinded her. The last thing she could remember was dropping to the ground.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

2 BTC || 3655 BBY

"You were willing to risk the operation for a child?"

"She's force-sensitive Keeper. And besides, I bought her not kidnap or steal her."

"I can sleep easier knowing that. You know how vital those materials from the Hutts are. If they or the Republic figure out that it is actually the Empire who they're supplying the materials to we'll have another enemy to deal with."

"Don't worry Keeper. Everything went as planned, the kid's just a bonus."

"I hope so… What are you planning to do with her? You know somebody her age won't survive the academy."

"I know of a Sith that takes in children and trains them until they're strong enough to survive the academy. I'll take her to him."

"This doesn't seem like something the Empire would sanction Watcher Seven."

"That's because it isn't sanctioned. She was a slave, so she probably has nowhere to go and my job doesn't really allow me to be a part time mother."

"Do what you have to do and return to your duties. There's still a war going on."

"Of course. Watcher Seven out."

After being bought Myria thought she was freed from a life in terrible living conditions, but as it turned out she was wrong. After taking her first step outside the ship the freezing-cold wind shocked her so hard that she found herself unable to move. All she was given was a thick cloth sheet with which she managed to cover most of her body, but wind was strong and cold enough to get through.

" _From one death trap to another,"_ she told herself begrudgingly as she dragged her still bare feet through the snow. The white Cathar lady was still there, helping Myria out as best as she could. Her fur helped but it was clearly visible that her brown leather jacket wasn't much help against the cold.

"We're nearly there," she encouraged Myria. Myria didn't know where they were headed nor did she care, all she wanted was a bit of peace. The ship provided it for a couple of days with its cozy bed and warm food, but this was pure torture. Not as bad as the mines on Nal Hutta but still horrible.

"Don't go off the path. The snow will swallow you whole," she warned Myria who had already been looking at the ground with her arms in front of her face to block out the falling snow. It was the first time she noticed that there were two barely visible metal bars poking out of the snow marking a path. She wanted to look where she was going but the falling snow reduced the visibility to the point where she could barely even see the Cathar woman.

Myria noticed that the steel bars began to split off at points, forming paths into other directions and upon looking in those directions could make out shapes of what seemed to be ships. Three of them in total. They turned towards the ship that was the furthest away from them. As they got closer Myria started making out shapes that looked like people. Once they got closer it was revealed that they were soldiers dressed in black armor with a red stripe going down from the top of their helmets.

"State your business," the guard on the left demanded.

"I'm here to meet the Darth," the Cathar woman answered.

"The Darth doesn't deal with astray aliens. Be on your way," the same guard stated.

The Cathar sighed. "We'll have it your way then." In a flash the Cathar stole the guard's rifle and threw it at the other's head, sending him falling out of surprise. She then put up a knife to the guard's neck. "Tell him Watcher Seven has a package to drop off," she said before moving her knife away from him.

"Right away," the guard said, his voice shaking. The guard activated his integrated commlink. "Darth Vowrawn my lord, Watcher Seven is here. She says she has a package to drop off." After a couple of moments, the ramp to the ship began lowering. "Go on."

From the outside the ship wasn't large and the same was the case for the inside of it. Upon entering the ship, they were met with a straight corridor with two doors on each side of it and a door at the far end, with one set of stairs on the left that led to the cockpit. There was a guard at two doors – one marked machine room and the other one storage. The crew quarters and an unmarked room were left unguarded while the room on the far side of the corridor was guarded by two troopers and an automated turret that was suspended from the ceiling above the door.

Myria could do nothing but just follow Watcher Seven. She was still completely out of energy, her spirit was completely broken, she was without purpose and she was only ten years old. The guards moved to the side, letting them through.

The door closed behind them leaving them in a dark room with dark gray walls and a round desk in the middle with a man sitting behind it, his chair turned towards the large viewport that was purely white. The two light sources except for the viewport were red lights that were placed above two red banners, each on one side.

"Chantaria my dear, what did I tell you about sneaking up on me during important visits to Imperial bases." The chair began turning revealing a man of a species Myria had never seen before. A man of red skin and even more fiercely red eyes with weird short tentacles growing out of his cheeks and chin, but what stood out even more was the golden jewelry adorning his nose.

"I'm sorry for the intrusion my lord," Watcher Seven said inclining her head as a sign of respect. "But wouldn't it be best if my name wasn't said out loud."

"Do not fret nobody is listening to us," he said, waving his hand dismissively. "I see that you brought something for me?" he asked directing his attention to Myria.

"I found her in a mine on Nal Hutta. The director activated her shock collar and well… I don't know how to explain it but I think she's force-sensitive," Watcher Seven said.

Myria had heard about the Force or something similar before. Her mother used to tell stories about people that had unnatural abilities to her and… Keira. Watcher Seven or Chantaria and Vowrawn kept on talking about something, but Myria couldn't hear anything, all she could remember was Keira. She was the one who always pushed her around and did her best to disvalue anything she did and then on top of all she was the one responsible for all of this.

"That is definitely true," Vowrawn said a small smile creeping up on his face. "Tell me girl. What is your name?"

"Myria," she said, still deep within her own thoughts. Before she could realize it Vowrawn was standing in front of her.

"Such anger in such a young girl… Tell me, what is burdening you?"

She didn't want to but after realizing that there was nothing to lose she told him her story. Where she came from how she lived her life as a child always being looked down upon by her only minutes older sister and how she was the one at fault for her being turned into a slave.

"It is unfortunate that these things happened to someone so young and so capable," he said pausing for a moment. "But I can grant you a new purpose – a new beginning. You will become powerful, but I must warn you the path will be long and hard with many deadly challenges on the way to power," Vowrawn added. His enthusiastic tone alone almost made her say yes. "If you don't want this though I will arrange for you to be taken back to Lah'mu."

Myria stood there shocked for a couple of moments, unable to move or think. They would just let her go home. She immediately wanted to say yes, but her anger dragged her to the other decision. If she was to return now she would return as a slave that didn't even manage to save herself or earn her way to freedom, but if she was to undertake whatever the man was offering she could become powerful and she could finally prove to her sister that she wasn't weak and afraid. If she was older she would've considered it more but being young and now finally having a goal and drive she made her decision.

"No, I want to undertake whatever you are offering," she said determinedly.

"Good. Follow me I will show you where you'll be spending your time during this trip."

 _A dark room with a coffin in the middle. That's where Keira woke up. She knew this wasn't real. The question was, was this one of those visions that would inevitably drive her closer to madness or a dream?_

 _She took in a more detailed analysis of the room. A giant stone coffin lay in the middle with two large stands with just as large pots flanking it on both sides. Further away were four small stone obelisks with weird symbols engraved upon them. There was only one way in and out of the room but it was blocked by a wall made of weird dark energy._

 _So, a tomb perhaps? But why would she be here, she never saw anything that was remotely connected to any of the items in the room._

" _Welcome Keira," an augmented voice behind her said._

 _She swung around only to see a tall see-through man with a blue aura around him. She had never seen the mask the man wore before. "You know me?"_

" _You don't know me, but I know much about you and I come with a warning," he turned around to face his coffin. He put his hands behind the back and stared past the coffin into the wall, his mask hiding his expression. "The path you're going down is a dark one. I know what plagues you. I have had similar situations millennia ago but mine were much more gruesome and violent. You must do the thing I never did – you must forgive yourself and move on, because if you don't do that you will fall as I have."_

" _I don't understand completely," Keira said._

" _Your sister. You know what you did. You must move on lest her image will plague and weaken your for the rest of your life, eventually leading to your demise," the man explained._

" _The thing you said before. You're a fallen Jedi?" Keira asked._

" _No," he shook his head. "I was a warrior of the dark, a Sith. In the beginning I was following the example of my masters – I was taught to act on instinct first, think later, but before I could think I had already killed everyone. Most Sith just move on from these events like it's nothing, but I couldn't. After I… did some things, I kept getting haunted by the ones I killed. Your crime is small. You only have to find forgiveness in yourself, but mine were much, much worse."_

" _I don't know if I can forgive myself." She wanted to forget about what she had done but it never worked out. Myria always came back from the dead to torment her._

" _As I said, you need to at least try. Now it is time for you to go back," he said, turning back towards her. "You must banish your guilt if you ever want to fulfill your potential." And with that he made a motion with his right hand and everything turned black again._

Keira woke up again, this time finally back in the real world but the surroundings were different. Instead of waking up in the middle of the jungle she woke up in her bed on her and Hiram's ship with her master sitting next to the bed.

"Good morning," Hiram said. He walked over to the bed. "How are you feeling?"

Keira pulled herself up into a sitting position. "I'm fine, thank you. What happened?"

"Well a while after you went in the tree began disintegrating. All that was left after it was gone was that crazy old man who got knocked out from the fall, you and a stone tablet that was broken into two parts," Hiram explained.

Keira looked past her master, seeing the old man tied to a chair. "Isn't it a bit dangerous having him in here?" The man wasn't knocked out, but he just kept staring at the floor directly in front of him.

"I've been watching over you and him ever since I pulled you two back with the help of the villagers."

"Has he said anything?" Keira asked.

"No. He's been quiet for the most part. We should start heading back to Coruscant." Hiram stood up and headed for the door. "You coming?"

"What about him?"

"Don't worry. I doubt he'll be moving anytime soon because of the fall."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

1 BTC || 3654 BBY

Bosthirda. Most didn't know it existed and for good reasons. The only reason people knew it existed was because of it being on the Kamat Krote hyperlane. The planet stood right at the midway point between Dromund Kaas and Korriban – forcing the traversing fleets to jump out and back into hyperspace, making the journeys from the aforementioned planets far more tedious than it should've been. And that was all that most of the citizens of the Empire, military and even intelligence and the Sith knew about it, but it was far more than just that.

It was originally the location of a temple of unknown origin. Its ruins carried stories from before the Sith and even the Jedi, perhaps even the Force. After the followers of the religion had either passed away or moved to a different planet, the mountainous terrain lay uninhabited by sentient life for millennia until a Sith expedition uncovered it while they were plotting new hyperspace routes. But even then, the planet was deemed insignificant until Darth Vowrawn's "Sith youth" project began taking shape.

The goal of the project was to provide with children that were far too young to survive the academy on Korriban with a place to get indoctrinated into the Empire and learn about the dark side of the Force. At first children were taken to a quiet camp in the middle of a valley – that is where Vowrawn dropped off Myria before immediately departing back to fight in the war.

The children's caretakers were a varied sort. Some of them were ex-military veterans or soldiers that got wounded and were unable to fight but there were also a couple of others who came from more peaceful backgrounds. Altogether there were six caretakers watching over 19 children of ages between 9 and 11. The caretakers were there to teach the children various subjects and even more practical things such as teaching them how to make weapons, traps, shelter… To Myria these things were easy to learn due to her being a Togruta – a species that excelled in hunting and the tribal type of life. But alongside learning those things it was obvious that the most important job of the caretakers was turning the kids into Imperials via the various propaganda-fueled lessons and holo-broadcasts.

Myria welcomed the Empire as she finally felt like she belonged somewhere. Lah'mu was part of the Republic but it might as well have been independent. They got completely ignored as if they didn't exist – even the deposits of valuable materials although small didn't bring the Republic to invest into the planet at all. To Myria it felt like they just added the planet just so they would seem bigger and she was sure that many other planets experienced the same negligence while being under the eye of The Republic.

From the various news broadcasts, she had watched the Empire seemed to take care of its citizens except for one thing – aliens. Non-humans were shunned and mocked by the citizens of the Empire except for the few that managed to claw their way to high places and even those received constant criticism and threats. That concern was wiped away from Myria when one of the ex-soldiers had told her that with what she would become none would dare to talk to her like that. She especially liked the sound of the "none would dare part". For most of her childhood she was always being pushed around by her sister so she never knew how even a little bit of power and control felt, but from what she heard other people say she would be given a great deal of it if she made it to the top of the food chain.

It was now the day she had been waiting for. Her and two other boys were old enough, so they would be sent to the training grounds to start the next part of their journey. Nobody had told Myria what it was, only that it was very hard and dangerous, and that death was also a possibility. The prospect of dying used to scare her before she had been sent to the mine. There she felt like she had completely lost her humanity and she was still mentally recovering from the things she had seen while working there. She felt completely emotionless with only a hint of sadness and anger creeping up on her whenever she thought about her home.

"What do you think the training grounds look like?" one of the boys asked the other excitedly. Tarion was his name and he was a descendant of a wealthy family while the other boy named Gunn was the son of a farmer on Tatooine. Tarion had been in the camp for two years while Gunn was brought in a couple of months after Myria. The two of them were always filled with the energy and happiness that every child possessed which made Myria jealous but at the same time she felt that her being forced to grow up sooner would help her in the times to come. Though she wouldn't mind feeling anything but sadness and anger whenever she did feel something.

"I have no idea, but I can't wait," Gunn answered, hopping on the spot from excitement.

"How can you two idiots be excited?" Myria said standing a fair distance away peering into the forest. They were told to wait in a clearing to the north of the camp for a ship to arrive.

"What do you mean? It's going to be awesome," Tarion countered.

"Yes. the promise of death really is exciting. Imagine being able to free yourself from this miserable existence," Myria said with a tone devoid of any emotion. That same tone was what replaced her very colorful voice, but that wasn't the only thing being replaced. Being constantly exposed to people with Imperial accents meant that she had been slowly adopting it as well. Most of the time she still spoke in her old accent but certain words and sentences were already replaced by the Imperial one and the number of those seemed to grow by the week.

"W-what are you talking about?"

Myria couldn't help but give a small smile upon seeing their expressions change completely. "The caretakers didn't tell you? The training grounds are dangerous. They are inhabited by dangerous monsters that were brought here and allowed to mate so the trainees would have something to fight against." She didn't know why but she found joy in watching the two boys stand there, their faces completely pale from fear and surprise. Myria wasn't sure as to why they didn't tell anybody but her about what their next step would entail, but it was probably for the best seeing as most of the other kids in the camp enjoyed pretty normal and some even lavish childhoods.

"Yes?" Darth Vowrawn asked innocently with his enthusiastic tone as the shape of Darth Malgus appeared in holo form in front of him.

"You're late Vowrawn," Malgus said obviously displeased. His imposing form was enough to scare even Jedi but Vowrawn valued his diplomatic skills, perhaps even too much. "Do I need to remind you how important this meeting is? Where are you?"

"I'm an hour or so out," Vowrawn answered. Vowrawn was flanked on one side by the captain of the ship he was on – his own personal flagship, and on the other side by his apprentice. "Bringing the whole dark council back to Korriban during the war seems like a bad idea."

"It will be far clearer once you get here. You have been cleared to land on the landing pad nearest to the entrance."

"Looking out for a man of my age." Vowrawn couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Your mother must be so proud of you."

Malgus's face – the part that wasn't covered by his hood and mask seemed to garner no reaction at all. "Before I go I must ask you something but it will require us to be alone."

"Captain back to your post," Vowrawn ordered and with a quick incline of his head the captain was gone. "And you," he said turning to his apprentice. "Make sure my shuttle is ready for departure."

"It will be done my lord."

And with that Vowrawn was left alone on the front-most part of the bridge. He decreased the volume of the transmission just in case somebody was listening in on them as he couldn't just clear out an entire Harrower-class dreadnought bridge while it was in hyperspace.

"You may proceed."

"It has reached me that you have undertaken the task of teaching the Sith way to children without the Emperor's or dark council's support."

Vowrawn was surprised that Malgus or anybody else knew about the training program but a man of his age wouldn't still be on a dark council if he didn't think about the future. "It is merely a test. The academy does not take children and I was afraid that their talents might get wasted with the Jedi or elsewhere and with the war going on I deemed it best for it to stay a secret until we see if it actually yields results."

"Even though your answer was fast and fulfilling I can sense your surprise. I fully support the program if the results prove fruitful. The Empire needs change if we want to stay ahead of the Republic and beginning Sith training earlier is one of the many things we can do to expand our lifespan but I fear that the more 'traditional' members won't agree with our point of view."

"We can only hope that their minds will be changed after the first trainees come to Korriban."

The metal shrieked as the ship touched down on the platform covered by snow and rocks. The hatch opened revealing a large permacrete and durasteel building carved into the mountain below and overhang. Everywhere else Myria looked was at least a thousand-meter fall to an unpleasant death. The Imperial pilot immediately took off after the last of them pressed both of their feet into the snow and so they were left alone with multiple security cameras staring in their direction and two Imperial soldiers approaching them.

"Follow us," was the only thing they said for the entirety of the short walk to the entrance of the building. Behind the thick blast doors was a reception area. A woman sat behind the desk which was left of the entrance. The hallway that ran past it was marked as comms room while the hallway that went to the right was tagged garrison barracks and the last one was simply called turbolift.

"Get in," the soldier ordered them.

They went into the turbolift and as it began descending into the depth of the mountain Myria took the moment to look at the two boys. Their faces were even paler compared to before and she found herself enjoying seeing their fear once again.

The turbolift ride lasted about twenty seconds. Then the door opened revealing a tall man in armor, but this armor was different compared to the soldiers'. His armor was thicker in some parts and seemed to have more functions built into it alongside having its paint scraped off in some places compared to the Imperial soldiers' armor which looked like it had never seen action in its lifespan.

"Tarion, Gunn and Myria," he said looking down at his datapad. "Come."

They followed him through a long corridor with no doors that eventually started branching off. Storage areas, various training rooms and quarters. The man led them to one of the rooms and gestured them to go in and after they were all inside closed the door and left.

The box they were led into contained three beds, a couple of drawers and a side room – probably a bathroom. Myria had already picked her bed as soon as they entered which was the one in the furthest right corner of the room.

"We need to get out of here," Tarion said.

"We can't. Didn't you see where we landed, there's no way out," Gunn argued.

"I'll buy my way out," Tarion countered.

Myria couldn't help but laugh. "What's with your?" Tarion asked.

"You two are cute. I can't wait to see how you two fare here."

"What's wrong with you? Did your parents throw you away? Is that why you hate everything?"

Myria froze for a moment at the mention of her family. Her past made it so that how she was forced away from home was a touchy subject, one that couldn't help but make her angry whenever she was forced to remember it. The years of torment it brought her – taking away her childhood and practically all of her morals. She felt her hands begin to shake slightly and her breathing and heartbeat became faster. She formed her hands into fists, propelled herself upwards from the bed and within a moment traversed the room and punched Torian in his right cheekbone, sending the boy's body to the ground.

(Coruscant)

Keira's day off was being spent reading books when she got a message from an old friend, one that she had not seen in years. She had immediately dropped everything she was doing and ran to hangar 3 in the Temple. The shuttle she was so eagerly awaiting landed and a few moments later she was already running towards her old friend. Zena had returned from her first battle.

"It's so good to see you," Keira said immediately embracing her friend.

"Good to see you too."

"You need to tell me all about it." Keira was very excited to hear her friend's story.

"Talk during lunch?" Zena asked with a smile.

"Sure."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

1 BTC || 3654 BBY

The room of a thousand fountains had been part of the temple ever since its inception. From what Keira knew it was the last place on Coruscant where plants and trees grew. Even some smaller and harmless animals lived there. A nice, quiet, large and open space for clearing your mind or mediation or in Keira and Zena's case a nice place for a friendly duel.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Zena asked Keira for about the tenth time in a minute.

"Oh yes, I'm sure," Keira answered with a confident nod. While having time off from her expeditions and training with Hiram she used the time to practice fighting. Keira thought that Zena who had been one of the best combatants in her class would be a good way to see if she had improved. Back then Zena had beaten her with ease, but this time Keira was hoping for a different outcome. However, she found herself disappointed as Zena managed to easily disarm her in a few quick moves.

Although Zena was the person that always encouraged her, she just couldn't help herself to not express how much better she was at things than other people. So, when she opened her mouth to speak Keira quickly interrupted her. "Again," Keira demanded.

Zena obliged, lunging at her the instant Keira picked up her practice sword. This time Keira managed to step back fast enough to evade the first swing, however due to her being in an awkward position before moving backwards, found herself struggling to stay on her feet. Zena instead of disarming her just used the weight of her body to finish the job.

"Had enough"? Zena said with a satisfied smile, pointing her practice sword at Keira's chest.

Keira couldn't help but crack a small smile herself as she used Zena's unreadiness against her and swept her legs. She stumbled backwards, giving Keira enough time to get back up and pick up her practice sword. "Not even close," she replied to the earlier question.

She had come to the conclusion that fighting Zena head on was impossible. In a way it made her sad that all the time and effort she had put into training didn't yield the results she wished for but facing such an opponent even in real battle meant that she would have to resort to more than just raw strength, speed and technique. There was also the Force and that was the field where she outmatched Zena unless she had somehow become incredibly powerful in a year.

Keira beckoned Zena to engage and within a millisecond the red-haired girl was up in her face. She managed to evade the first few swings by taking a step back again, before going in for a few attempts of her own. Zena repelled the attacks with ease.

Keira had put the most time into practicing forms III and V which meant that she in theory had a good defense, but her lack of sparring practice with said forms made it so that her defense was slow and sloppy which in the case of fighting against somebody like Zena meant certain defeat. She could successfully block 3-4 attacks before finding herself overwhelmed, so she adapted by regularly retreating far enough to where she would have enough time to reestablish her defense. The strategy seemed to be working as blocking Zena's attacks became much easier but there was a fatal flaw in the strategy – it left no time or space to attack. And especially with Zena's aggressive style of always being in her face it meant that if she did attempt to launch a surprise attack she would meet her blade in the middle and that was again an unfavorable position because Zena was also taller and stronger than her so she would be easily able to win a blade lock, so this was where Keira decide to include her skills with the Force.

Keira repelled a few swings and retreated once again, this time taking a few extra steps. When Zena began running at her again Keira used the Force on a now obviously annoyed Zena. She sent a wave of Force energy towards Zena's leg making her lose balance. She still attempted a swing at Keira however she used the Force once again, this time grabbing her hand and making her swing way ahead of time. Still trying to regain her balance the sudden unexpected influence over her arm shifted the weight just enough that she couldn't keep herself up anymore. She slid past Keira and a moment later the tip of Keira's practice sword was poking her back.

"Not fair!" Zena argued.

"One with your experience should know by now that the Sith do not play fair as well," Slai-fon's voice rang behind Keira.

Keira immediately turned around and inclined her head. "Master Slai-fon."

Zena in the meantime picked herself back up and joined Keira at her side. "I know master."

"You need to control yourself better Zena. The longer the fight went on the more anger I was able to sense from you. I know feelings are hard to control when you are young."

"I will do my best to overcome my flaws," Zena guaranteed him.

"Good, and as for you Keira, I am very pleased with what I've observed. Your adaptation was fast and effective."

"Thank you, master."

* * *

The Sith order. An ancient organization devoted to following the dark side of the Force. It was this organization it turned out that Myria was training to join. She had learned that on the first day of being at the training grounds. Overseer Lombardi, the lead instructor, had witnessed her hit Tarion and commended her for doing so which she didn't understand until she had learned what the Sith were about.

An order where its members were driven by hate, anger and greed. The old Myria, the one before Nal Hutta wouldn't even have wanted to see them but now she enjoyed every second of it. She found purpose in all the pain and the power that the rigorous training program caused. She welcomed her biggest challenge, that being that even as an alien she could be as if not even more powerful than her Human and Sith counterparts. Most of them hated her and did all they could to undermine her efforts. The rules made it easy to do so seeing as the trainees were only prohibited from hitting each other in the base. The outer training ground where the harder tasks and training took place was completely without rules.

A few other had already died in the grounds, either from failing to fend off the vile wildlife the Sith brought to the planet to test them or from other trainees. The older trainees would even set up traps for the younger ones. Myria, being part of a race of predators used her enhanced hearing and vision in combination with the little knowledge she had about the Force to evade these ambushes and any other trainees on the grounds.

After a few weeks in training Tarion had managed to buy his way out of the training, but of course not before being threatened that if he spilled even a word about the operation, he and his family would suffer a fate worse than death. That left Myria and Gunn alone in the room.

Gunn had come around from being a shy child and was turning into a proper warrior. He was also the only person there besides some of the instructors that liked Myria.

"Everyone ready?" Rykan, one of the Mandalorians that were hired to train the youth, asked.

Myria gripped her metal practice stick firmly and began making a plan. 3 opponents in each corner of the room. They had been ordered to fight in a free-for-all style match in a room filled with different size poles. If they fell from them and touched the ground they would get knocked unconscious by the electrified floor.

The instructor, Rykan, was safe in the next room observing the fight. Rykan was of clan Ordo, one of the many different Mandalorian clans that existed. He was the kindest out of all instructors, but also very strict. Years of clan wars and hunting made him very proficient with different fighting techniques long and short range.

"Begin," Rykan stated after a few moments.

Myria stood in place for another few moments, making a strategy based off her enemy's movements. Her instructors had taught her and everybody else to swing first, think later but Myria liked to do it the other way around. Her three opponents clashed in the middle of the room.

She started moving to the left, sneakily hopping from pole to pole while the banging of metal sticks against one another filled the room. Two of them were using one-handed fighting styles while the other was using two sticks. She began approaching one of them from behind.

Myria was now two poles away from her first opponent. She waited for him to make a long swing, one that would leave him exposed and unable to turn at the right time. The boy swung and got blocked by one of the other fighters. At that point Myria jumped onto the next pole and then propelled herself towards him, kicking him in the back and sending him to the electrified floor without him having a chance to react.

The sparking sounds of electricity still made her a tad bit uncomfortable, but she remained focused and began preparing her next move. The other two were focused on fighting each other. They got into multiple blade locks, all ending in ties and that was where Myria spotted a hole in both of their defenses. After a blade lock, they both stumbled for balance for a few short moments. She made up a plan which would make good use of her type of weapon. It was a way longer bar that was supposed to simulate a double-bladed weapon.

She had been assigned the weapon on the first day after the evaluation. Back in camp they had all been taught a standard fighting style, but she always liked to move around a lot incorporation a lot of twirls into her motions and other moves. After noticing it Lombardi had given her a longer weapon. She had quickly gotten used to using the other blade which made her really dangerous in duels, but she could also control and dispatch of larger groups of hostiles.

She got closer and closer and when her two opponents finally got into another blade lock, she used that moment to jump forward and land in between them. The boy and girl, Myria didn't remember their names, attempted to break off and defend against the sudden appearance of a new combatant but they were unable to recover from their blade lock fast enough to defend against Myria. She shoved the long metal bar forwards, knocking both of them off their poles. The intense sound of electricity hitting two bodies made Myria twitch.

A few seconds later the sound of the generators shutting off could be heard. Myria was already headed towards the door when it opened and somewhere around ten other trainees entered the room. It was pretty apparent the others wanted her to lose from their looks or remarks she did her best to ignore.

"Nicely done," Gunn commented when she exited the room. There were cameras recording the fight which was then displayed on a couple of monitors out on the hallway.

"Thanks." Myria couldn't help but smile a bit. She had almost all but forgotten the feeling of being complimented during all her years spent as a slave and at the grounds.

"Gunn get in and get ready. Your fight begins in 3," the familiar deep, clear and bassy voice rang from behind her.

"Right away sir," Gunn immediately said. He walked past Myria and disappeared into the room.

"And as for you," Rykan added.

Myria turned around to face him. The old Mandalorian towered over her. He always had a serious face but was very kind when the trainees didn't tick him off.

"You have pleasantly surprised me. Not many of the others have the mind or patience to actually plan instead of just fight. Eh, who can blame them? It's all the Sith teach them." Rykan observed her for a few moments. "It is unfortunate that the others aren't acceptive of you. The Empire would do well to start respecting other species."

"That it would sir," Myria agreed.

* * *

 _1 year later…_

"Are you sure you want to go alone? You know they're going to be waiting for you?"

"I'm sure Gunn," Myria guaranteed him.

"But what if they attack you?" Gunn asked.

"They won't but if they are stupid enough to do so they'll regret it big time," she returned stoically. She still hadn't been in a situation where she would have to fight any of the others outside on the grounds but this time it was inevitable. She was assigned alongside nine others to hunt down a Manka cat pack leader.

The tensions had only grown in the past months as Myria completed test after test successfully only to be attacked by her peers, mostly verbally but also sometimes physically. She hadn't ventured out onto the grounds much so the latter was very rare and when it did happen it happened inside the base, so in the end the ones who attacked her got punished. Still, that didn't get rid of all the bruises she had received but it was something and that something was even making her more hated.

"Just be careful." Myria felt bad for Gunn. In the beginning the other children still talked to him and included him into their circles of friends but after countless and countless attempts to make him hate Myria had failed he had been put into the same situation as Myria so it was no wonder he was scared for her. He was scared of being left alone.

"Don't worry big guy," she said tapping his right shoulder. "I'll be fine."

Traversing the large labyrinth that was the base went as usual. The corridors snaked their way through their mountain in various directions with each intersection leading to different parts of the base. With no map or anything at her disposal Myria was surprised when she managed to make it to one of the three exits with making only one wrong turn. Usually it would take much thinking and sometimes even asking one of the instructors for help.

"You here for the Manka cat hunt?" the Mandalorian who was guarding the exit asked her.

Myria nodded in response. The guard turned and walked over to a cabinet. He punched in a keycard into a console on the side and opened it revealing a wide array of swords.

"Take your pick. They've all been sharpened an hour ago," the guard said, moving off to the side.

Myria immediately grabbed one of the two double-bladed swords and began inspecting its blades. "This will do."

The guard closed the cabinet doors, a loud click confirming that the cabinet was now locked. He then turned and started towards the door with Myria following him closely. He pressed a big red button on the wall and the heavy and thick metal blast doors began opening, revealing the foggy morning mountain valley. "Good hunting."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

0 BTC || 3653 BBY

(Bosthirda)

Myria stepped out past the doorframe, the chilly morning air enveloping her instantly. The door behind her began slowly closing and ten seconds later she was left alone in the foggy valley. Usually she would leave the base with a weapon and a chance to complete her task without encountering any of the other trainees but this time it was practically unavoidable since she shared the same task with 9 others. Closing her eyes briefly and taking in a breath of fresh air she started into the forest.

The Force had been a part of her training albeit not a big part of it. They had been taught to use their darker emotions to gain power from the dark side of the Force but they were also taught how to use some powers without them. Myria found it best to practice with somebody at her side but due to cooperation being frowned upon she and Gunn had to practice in the night in the confines of their room. It had proven to be a slow process but they both developed and strengthened their bond with the Force over the year. This as Myria was about to prove was essential to her survival.

She stopped in her tracks only a minute into her hike. She had been unable to find any tracks of the target or any other Manka cat as a matter of fact but what stopped her in her tracks was the crackling of leaves and twigs in the close by. From the speed of the steps it was obvious that it was somebody sneaking. Whoever it was they weren't the smartest. Togrutas had way better hearing than humans and even if Myria's montrals weren't fully developed yet she could still hear better than most humans.

Myria thought it to be a good time to try and locate whoever it was with the Force as practice. She hid behind a nearby tree and reached out with the Force. She was left disappointed when she was only able to pinpoint the general vicinity of the person stalking her.

As the footsteps started coming closer and closer, she began looking for an escape route. After a few quick turns of her head she decided that climbing the tree was her best choice. She was small and light enough for the branches to be able to support her, so she began climbing and soon found herself on a long branch that would lead her to another branch of the neighboring tree. But before she moved, she waited for her stalker to appear and appear he did, disappearing from her sight moments after. She didn't know why but she felt disappointed that he wasn't trying to sneak up on her, or that was what she got from his lack of reaction. She didn't want to fight but she felt the urge to.

She spent the next quarter of an hour just navigating from tree to tree, avoiding any and all contact with anybody and anything. Then all of the sudden a scream could be heard. Myria immediately turned that way and launched herself to the next branch, to the next and so on until she eventually located the source of the scream. One of the new girls that had been brought in a week prior was cowering on a rock formation while a Manka Cat did all that was in its power to reach her. Luckily for the girl the wet moss on the rock proved too slippery for the predator.

Upon closer inspection Myria determined that the Manka was only two or three years old and could not be her target but she did get an idea. She sat down on the branch she was on and removed her shoes as fast as possible before descending the tree. She carefully placed her shoes on the floor and began sneaking up on the Manka cat. The cold and wet ground proved to be hard to maneuver silently as her feet kept sinking into the dirt, but she managed to get close. She had to find a way to calm it down or otherwise make it stand still as it kept launching itself at the rocks, hoping to get up. Picking up a rock she threw it at a tree to her right with full force. The sound of a rock hitting wood immediately confused the predator as it stopped for a few seconds inspecting the area where the sound came from. Those few seconds were enough for Myria to cut up its back-left leg with one long swing which hit it twice due to the weapon being double-bladed. The second blade had hit the artery of the beast.

The blood sprayed into her as she dashed forwards, past the Manka cat and up on the rock. The vicious predator attempted to climb the rock a few more times before finally giving up and limping back into the depths of the dark forest.

Myria turned and jumped over a small gap. The girl in fear took a step back but slipped. Myria grabbed her in the last possible moment, preventing the girl from falling to the rocks below.

"What are you doing out here?" Myria asked angrily. When new batches of trainees were brought in it would usually take a year or so before they were sent out into the grounds.

"I uh… uh," the girl stuttered in response.

Myria let go of her hand and loosened up her expression a bit. "How did you get out?" Myria asked the girl calmly.

"I snuck her out," a voice coming from the forest answered. One of the older trainees, a year or so older than Myria, stepped out from the shadows. Three claw marks ran across his shoulder. "Get away from her," he added, trying to lift his sword but he was immediately forced to lower the weapon due to the pain.

"Or what?" Myria taunted.

He stared at her blankly for a few moments. "Please, just let her go," he pleaded.

The girl attempted to move past Myria but she stopped her by putting an arm in front of her. "What is she to you?"

"She's my cousin. I'm trying to get her out," the boy confessed.

Myria loosened her arm and let the girl run past her. She nearly fell multiple times while trying to get down the rocks but she managed in the end.

"Are you alright?"

"I'll be fine. We need to get going," the boy said.

"Oh you're not going anywhere with that wound," Myria countered, getting down from the rocks herself. "I'm guessing the Manka cat got you."

"Yes. It attacked us on the way. I managed to push Daska out of the way in time," he paused for a brief moment. "There's a ship waiting for her east of here. It's not far," he stated pointing towards said direction. "Can you please take her there?"

The little girl's eyes widened. "What about you? You said you would be coming with me," she cried out.

"I was never going to come with you Da," he said, looking at the ground in shame for a few moments. "I made my decision, but your talents are far too good to be wasted here."

"But," the girl attempted to protest.

"No buts," he said determinedly before turning to Myria. "Will you please do this? I don't really have anything to offer."

"Sure," Myria said with a shrug. Even though she didn't know his name he was one of the few others that had never insulted her or made fun of her in any way, so she figured why not.

"Just like that?" the boy said in confusion. Being nice and helping was not what they were taught to do after all.

"Yeah, why not."

"But aren't you one of the ones that is hunting the Manka cat pack leader?"

"Oh, don't worry I've already done everything I need to, to locate it," Myria assured him. "You ready to go?" she asked Daska.

"Yes," Daska answered albeit reluctantly.

(Coruscant)

"Breathe," Hiram reminded Keira for about the tenth time in the span of a couple of minutes. "Empty your mind. Focus only on the Force."

She closed her eyes even harder and began taking in deep, long breaths. She let go of every burden and worry she had and simply relaxed. The silent buzzing sound of the light that had annoyed her was slowly fading into the background and then came a sense of weightlessness. The feeling of the rugged floor beneath her disappeared and she felt like she was floating.

Then to her confusion she started hearing the sound of water dripping. That sound only became louder and louder and instead of a simple water drop she started hearing more and more of them until they formed a violent stream. She opened her eyes instinctively and froze for a moment. She was in the cavern once again sitting on the ledge where she… She shook her head and after a blink found herself once again in the white-walled meditation room with Hiram staring straight at her. She had never seen him so serious in all the years that she had been his padawan.

"You will tell me everything," he demanded.

It was what she had feared the most – to tell the truth. The truth that might end up leading to her being expelled from the order, but she was trapped and had no way out of it. If she lied her master would sense it so she could only do one thing, tell him everything.

"I acted with my instincts instead of my head. If I wasn't stupid, she would've been here with me and we would both become Jedi," Keira said, tears slowly going down her cheeks.

"It is the Jedi way to forgive. I am sorry for what happened. She sounds like a wonderful girl."

"If only I treated her as such," she got out barely. It took her until now to see that the way she treated Myria was not right.

The room was silent for a few long moments. "So it is this guilt that is causing you all the trouble," Hiram deduced.

"I have tried everything. I tried forgetting about it and it just keeps coming back, I also forgave myself."

"You may have forgiven yourself but did you truly do so or did you just tell yourself that to get rid of the nightmares and visions."

Keira had never thought of it that way, but it only raised more questions for her. "But then how do I forgive myself?"

"It would seem like you need to tackle it head on. From what I know you could face it through meditation. You have already managed to see the environment but instead of turning back this time go deeper," he explained. "Try it now."

Keira crossed her legs again and began repeating the earlier process.

(Bosthirda)

Far to the East the forest began vanishing and the mountains opened up into wide fields of grass. The first time seeing this is what stunned Myria. For the first time in years she felt something besides, pain, anger, sadness… All those terrible memories that caused here to feel that way were swept to the back of her head and instead were replaced by the memories of Lah'mu's grasslands, the few simple, villages, her mother – she even managed to push Keira aside for a moment. There was also something else, a feeling she hadn't experienced in a while and missed greatly, the feeling of being free. But she knew it wouldn't last so she took as much of it in as possible.

"Is something wrong?" Daska asked her.

They were not far outside the perimeter, having managed to get through the electric fence.

"No, no," Myria said quietly still peering into the distance. She closed her eyes and sighed. " _It's all gone. Forget about it already,"_ she told herself. "Lead the way."

"I think we should go back," Daska said a minute after they had started moving.

"Why?"

"I don't want to leave Lex behind," Daska answered.

"Lex can take care of himself," Myria stated. The base had a massive leaderboard in the canteen showing off the top 30 trainees. A Lex was always on the top half of that list but she didn't know if it was him since there could've been multiple Lexs. She herself had joined that top 30 list a couple of months ago and as she had expected it brought here even more attention and not the good kind.

"I hope you're right."

Myria started hearing the sound of running ship engines, which meant that they were headed into the right direction. Daska at first didn't react at all since she couldn't hear as well as Myria but when she finally picked up the sound, she quickened her pace.

The ship started coming into view and to no surprise it looked like a ship that only the higher classes could afford and alongside that the closer they got humans with weapons began taking shape.

"It's best if you don't go closer," Daska said. "My father doesn't take kindly to aliens."

"I understand," Myria said dryly. She came to expect such things from Imperials so there was no surprise there. She immediately turned around and began heading back towards the fence.

"Thank you for the help," Daska called out behind her.

"Yeah, don't mention it."

The blood had already dried when she returned and there was about two to three hours of sunlight before it set behind the mountains. The journey east with Daska hadn't been a short one as Lex stated it would but she did experience the feeling of being free and she would take that over some points on a leaderboard every day. Yet those points were what would take her to the next step and for the freedom she silently craved for.

She followed the trail of blood through the forest but the long-lasting silence worried her. She not only kept all her senses sharp she even attempted to locate anything she could with the Force but even that didn't guarantee her safety. Some of the other trainees might've learned how to hide their presence but she doubted it since pretty much all of them focused more on just brutal fighting rather than learning the ways of the Force which eased her burden a bit while she followed the trail.

A sudden surge in the number of presences she could sense, and the distant sound of growling halted her progress. She quickly pinpointed the origin which originated from the same way that the path of blood which was now just reduced to drops every meter or so led. Crouching down, she began slowly approaching the sound. The path of blood drops led through a bush that the Manka cat obviously passed through with the now newly audible breathing being right behind it. Myria decided to take the safer approach of staying high in the trees where even if she was spotted the Manka cat couldn't hurt her.

Instead of the wounded Manka cat she was expecting she instead saw three. One was about the wounded one's size while the other was probably three times as large Myria if it stood up on its back legs. They were both looking over the wounded one that was laying on its side staring off into the distance.

The smallest bit of regret sparked within Myria who's fire would only spread through her if she hadn't put it out. She had already learned that not everybody would survive on her journey to even she didn't know where. It had begun in the mine where she lied and got other people killed and it would continue now. She could only hope that it wouldn't continue until her death.

She maneuvered through the branches, going from tree to tree once again until she was on top of them. By then the wounded Manka cat had already taken its last breath. The fact that it was the first death she caused by dealing the blow didn't shock her – she was in the moment, planning her attack.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

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(Bosthirda)

Myria decided on her first target, the smaller Manka. It might've been useful to wound the supposed pack leader but the younger one would've probably proven to be a bigger nuisance in the long-run.

Myria took one last deep breath before dropping off the branch, pouncing on the younger Manka. She drove her blade right through its throat and it could only let out a squeal before its body was pushed to the ground by Myria landing on it. She barely managed to roll off to the side as the larger Manka attempted to throw itself at her in retaliation. It turned around and woofed at her before launching at her again. The speed with which the Manka was attacking her was too much for her to keep evading and having the ability to retaliate so she had to come up with a new way to fight it.

She took a brief moment to look at her surroundings. Trees, dirt, grass, bushes and pretty much nothing else. She sighed. " _That's just great,"_ she said to herself as the beast attacked her again. From the way it just kept mindlessly launching itself at her, it seemed like it really cared about its pack members and wanted revenge so badly that it would probably find a way to follow her to other planets.

As she evaded the giant beast's claws which could easily tear her up with one good slash, she kept trying to find a solution besides running away. If she wasn't going to kill it now another trainee might find it and kill it instead and she wouldn't let that happen.

Even after minutes of rolling and jumping around in circles the Manka still showed no signs of slowing down, so Myria decided to go on the offensive. The Manka lunged at her once again. This time instead of rolling or running off to the side Myria rolled towards where the Manka cat was lunging, rolling under it and managing to slash its back-left leg before it flew out of range.

To Myria's disappointment and disdain it only became more infuriated and the wound she caused didn't slow it down at all. So, she tried the same thing again and again, aiming for its underside and on the fifth attempt, she managed to stick her blade through its thick skin just below its neck, letting the speed of the animal do the rest. It growled and squealed as it limply turned towards her and then collapsed down on the cold and wet grass.

Myria let out a sigh of relief before a sudden impulse of pain struck her. She didn't get out without contracting a wound. On the third attempt, she had tripped on some roots which had nearly meant her death, if she had not managed to roll away but one of the Manka's claws still grazed her all the way from the left side of her hip to the bottom of her thigh. It hurt and it would get infected if left unattended, so she got to work.

She approached it from the back, trying to evade the cut she made as much as she could. Blood she could handle at this point but seeing the insides of an animal laid out on the ground before her, she had no wish to see. Luckily it was big enough as to where she could stay on the other side safely without having to see the gore.

She had been given simple instructions back at the base: kill the Manka cat and find its tag. The tag was shaped similarly as an injection needle. It was shot from a rifle and upon impact, it released a chemical that made it so the animal only felt a millisecond long itch. With no reason to scratch it off or any indication that the tag itself was in the animal, it would just roam around, not knowing that it was being hunted.

Myria started running her hand through the fur until she came upon a small cold bump in the skin. Managing to get her fingers around it, she pulled as hard as she could and only a moment later, she held the tag in her hand. Without a second thought, she closed her fist and started towards the base.

She found herself slowing down more and more as she went on. Running out of daylight and the wound turning out to be more serious than she had initially thought forced fear into her head. The wound which she had initially thought was only a long scrape turned out to be much worse as more and more blood began staining her clothes and drying there, gluing the fabric to her skin. Every step she took with her left leg caused pain and with every small amount of strain she felt as if the wound opened more and more. The forest around her began twisting and contorting as the pain and loss of blood slowly began affecting her head. But unfortunately that is not all she had to deal with.

"Well look who's out wandering in the forest." The sound range of the voice changed with every single word.

"She doesn't look too good." She was so close to the base. Only a couple more dozen meters and she would be in the safe zone where the cameras could see her.

She managed to drag herself to a tree and lean on it. She vaguely starred in the direction where the voices were coming from. She squinted with the attempt of seeing who it was, but still, everything kept spinning and distorting. One thing was obvious thought – whoever they were they did not come to help her.

"Let's just finish her."

"No. I want to see her suffer."

It seemed like the end of the road, but she wouldn't die without trying everything she could. Fighting was not an option so she had to run but the pain would… She stopped herself. She was training to become a Sith. They were taught to use their anger, pain and every other emotion to grant her strength. She took a deep breath and then began hitting herself in the wound with the tag in her hand. With every hit immense pain would pulsate through her entire body, threatening to knock her unconscious but she kept on hitting and channeling all the pain.

The two figures that were approaching her stopped. Whether it was out of confusion or something else she didn't care. She kept channeling the pain.

Once the two trainees began approaching her again, she struck. She pointed both of her arms towards their direction and with a violent scream unleashed all the emotion she had built up. The result was a powerful wave of Force energy that launched one of them into a tree and the other into a nearby bush. Turning around, she used the tree to give her extra momentum as she started limping towards the entrance. The voices that came from behind her were fully distorted this time and darkness started overwhelming her eyes.

She managed to step out of the tree line just as the voices seemed to be within touching distance of her. She raised the tag triumphantly before plummeting to the ground.

* * *

 _As the cavern began forming around her it became harder and harder for Keira not to turn back. The even still haunted her and it would forever do so unless she did something about it. So there she was, standing on top of the ledge alone, peering down to where the nearby waterfall transformed into an aggressive river. But nothing made any sound, not the waterfall, not the nearby drops of water that echoed through the cave, nothing. Complete silence._

 _Keira turned around only to find that the path behind her was blocked off by boulders. There was only one way she could go. She peered over the edge. Every instinct in her body told her not to do it, but she managed to overpower the feeling – it was only a vision and she had to do it anyway. Taking a step forward, she shifted all her weight forward which sent her plunging down to the water below._

 _A splash signaled her landing, but she didn't feel the water instead she felt her body being tickled gently from all directions with a soft wind blowing in her face. She opened her eyes. The grasslands of Lah'mu greeted her sight and for a moment she felt calm. She forgot everything and took in the familiar cold breeze and the wet tall grass._

 _The sound of the grass being shoved aside brought her out of her moment of peace. She turned on her heels to face whatever was making that sound and found her muscles tense up after doing so. A figure of a Togruta shrouded in dark mist stood there._

" _Welcome home sister." Myria's voice was still the same high-pitched one as when she last saw her only that the tone in which she spoke seemed lifeless which was the complete opposite of her usual energetic self. But that wasn't the only thing. She had grown._

 _Keira craved to see her face but except for Myria's outlines, nothing else was visible due to the dark mist that enveloped her body._

" _What's wrong? Did I scare you?"_

 _Keira shook her head and relaxed her muscles. "No."_

" _So, finally gained some courage, have you? Why are you here?"_

" _I'm here to forgive myself," Keira told her._

" _Forgive… yourself?" Myria seemed to be shocked but not in a positive way. "Yourself!?" she yelled. Myria's body disappeared and then a moment later reappeared, this time only a step away from Keira. Myria grabbed Keira by the neck and lifted her in the air._

" _You came to seek forgiveness for yourself? Look at me! You cursed me to this existence. Not being able to die, just living inside here in an eternal loop of suffering. And you want to forgive yourself?"_

" _You don't understand," Keira said, struggling for air. "I came here to apologize to you."_

 _Myria squeezed her neck harder. "You are only here for yourself. You don't care about me, you never did. All I was and still am is an obstacle, an obstacle you need to get rid of." Then she suddenly disappeared again, causing Keira to drop down to the ground and land on her knees._

" _I know the things I've done, and I know they were wrong. I should've treated you as my equal, but I didn't and I'm sorry about that. Do you think this was what I wanted? If I could go back, I would change everything."_

" _I sense your sincerity," the shadow said, reappearing a fair distance behind her._

 _That simple sentence hurt Keira more than it should've. Myria had been Force-sensitive as well. They could've trained and became Jedi together, but now instead Myria was only a prisoner of her own thoughts._

" _But I need to know if you are prepared for the future," Myria said, her voice calm. "Come to me."_

 _Keira did as her sister obliged. Myria extended her arm after she got close and Keira immediately took it. Then a strong flash of white light blinded her._

* * *

 _I'll post a quick little note here to explain what happened in Keira's vision. Of course, as we know Myria is alive and is training as a Sith, so why does the shadow version of her indirectly state to Keira that she is dead?_

 _The answer is that the real Myria and the shadow one aren't connected. The shadow one is the one that got planted into Keira's head because of all the grief, shame, self-doubt… so basically, she created the shadow that haunted her. The things shadow Myria says in this chapter are the things Keira knows she had done wrong and only through finally facing her sister directly, which she was too scared to do in the other visions, was she able to free herself._


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

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(Bosthirda)

"You're awake," Gunn said followed by an exhale of relief.

"Where…"

"You're in the infirmary," he informed Myria. "You were in a terrible state. They didn't even know if you would make it." His concern for her was obvious from his facial expressions. Myria appreciated his concern as finally after a long time she didn't feel as if she was completely alone. He had been there as her only friend, even sacrificing his own reputation to remain loyal to her and that is something she would never forget.

"The tag?" He tilted his head to the right. Myria's eyes dragged across the room slowly when she finally saw the desired object – the tag, the blood that stained it now cleaned.

"What happened out there?" he asked.

She debated mentioning Lex and his cousin, but she decided against it. She made a note in her head to tell him that after they went back to their room though where they were far away from the ears of other trainees and overseers.

She paused once she got to the part of the story where the Manka cat managed to claw her up. She removed the blanket she was covered with and checked her side. A long line of kolto patches with a few stitches here and there poking out from beneath them.

[Risba]"I'm starting to amass quite the collection," she said in an exasperated manner. She then covered it back up with the blanket. All the minor scrapes and cuts she managed came and went but this one and the scar from the knee operation she underwent would probably stick with her forever.

"At least you have something to remember your triumphs." Gunn paused and lowered his head to the point where his eyes stared straight into the floor. "At least you have triumphs."

Even though he tried saying it as quietly as possible Myria could easily distinguish what he said. Battling against the pain as she battled to get into a sitting position, she grabbed his forearm.

"You're doing great." She said it in a threatening way to make him know that she was being serious about it. She also didn't like when Gunn talked himself down which he had a tendency of doing sometimes. The same sequence of events followed his doubts – Myria would either start yelling at him, shake him violently or even sometimes slap him if she saw the need for it. Letting her only friend drag himself down wasn't an option for her.

"Now if I have to hurt myself again to pull you out of your stupid little head, I will beat you up. Understood?" The training and instructions they received weren't focused on working as a team. The Sith instructed them to work alone as much as they can and only use others for their own gain. Myria wasn't fond of that school of thought to say the least.

Gunn scratched the back of his head and laughed. "Understood."

* * *

(Coruscant)

A fierce and ruthless warrior, a man according to himself who was born to fight, a man who would kill anything and anybody that got in his way if it meant victory for the Empire and himself. That man was Darth Malgus. Years and years of battlefield experience gained him the respect of the military and his Sith peers but that wasn't all he gained. Everyone, even some of the Sith to his delight, feared him for he was one of the most powerful Force-users to ever grace the galaxy.

"We're here," Eleena Daru, his most avid follower and lover informed him. He had saved the lavender Twi'lek long ago from her master and even though she remained his slave they eventually fell in love.

In the confines of the small bedroom on the ship of a Jedi Knight he had slain not too long ago was where he decided to stay the trip and channel his anger for what he knew this would be his biggest and most suicidal battle yet. The plan was suicidal at best but that only filled him with more excitement.

He got off his knees and turned around. "Are the Mandalorians ready?"

"Already in position and waiting," she said with a nod.

"Good." He then started towards the bridge.

The bridge on the small Jedi shuttle was extremely simple which was in stark contrast to most Imperial designs that tried to force as many sharp corners and eye-popping red colors everywhere.

"There's an incoming transmission from Alderaan," Eleena said.

"Just on time," Malgus responded, sitting down in the copilot seat. He pressed a flashing red button on the console and the holograms of Darth Vowrawn and Shea Vizla appeared above the area between the pilot and copilot seat.

Malgus got straight to business. "How is the conference progressing?"

"It is going well. Darth Baras is currently negotiating with the Republic and Jedi representatives. They are showing no signs of suspicion." he paused for a moment. "Lord Adraas contacted me. He said that the plan has changed and that you should await the arrival of the strike team."

"Inform him that you were unable to reach me." Malgus managed to remain calm on the outside but in reality a storm was brewing inside him. Adraas was a man he despised for years and once he was given the second-in-command role of the operation Adraas did everything that was in his power to lower his influence in the battle. He would've probably removed Malgus from the plan entirely if Malgus wasn't as powerful as he was.

"I will do so." The transmission on Vowrawn's part cut off.

"What is your report from the Temple?"

"The ventilation systems were unprotected just as the plan stated. We're waiting for your go," Shae reported. The Mandalorian leader was one of the outside the Sith order he had respect for. He had fought numerous battles alongside her during the war when Imperial troops proved to be inadequate, managing to lead the other Mandalorian clans to victories against unsurmountable odds.

"Very well. I shall be there within the hour. I hope your warriors are ready for this."

"They are some of the finest hunters this galaxy has ever seen. If they fail…"

"There will be no failure," Malgus interrupted her.

"If you say so." With that she ended her transmission and he and Eleena were left alone.

Malgus was so focused on the mission he barely noticed that they've landed.

"Are you ready to do this Veradun?" Eleena asked him as he stared at the Jedi temple that was located in front of the landing pad.

"I've been waiting for this for years. Today is the day the Jedi finally die," he growled.

* * *

"I did it!" Keira cheered loudly as she woke up from her meditation. A huge weight that had been there for years was lifted off her shoulder and she had never felt happier. Putting her sister to rest and knowing that she gained her forgiveness made her remember the good times they had instead of that one event.

"Well done," Hiram congratulated her as he got back up on his feet. "I know how it feels to get rid of bad memories although mine weren't as bad as yours from what you described."

"Take this experience and learn from it. You must not let the darkest parts of your past define you as they will eventually start leading you down a dark path and once you start the trip, the further you go, the harder it is to turn away and return to the light." When giving lessons Hiram had his signature smile on his face most of the time and would explain things in a fun way but there was none of that enthusiasm there. Keira couldn't sense her master's feelings but she could only assume that he was talking either from his own experience or that he lost or nearly lost somebody close to him because they went down that path.

Keira got on her feet as well. "Thank you, master," she said, bowing respectfully. "I couldn't have asked for a better teacher."

"Well there are better options," he said jokingly, his smile returning.

Before Keira could make a remark or do anything actually the alarms went off. The Temple had a plethora of different alarm sounds which signified different types and locations of attack. She didn't know all of them but from Hiram's face, which had at this point changed expressions around fifteen times in mere minutes it felt like to her, it wasn't anything good.

Hiram went for the door to the training room and Keira followed him, keen on learning what was happening.

"No," Hiram said once he reached the door. "You stay here."

At first Keira wanted to object his decision but she made the wise decision of not doing so, but before she could ask him what was happening, he had already closed the door and left her alone.

" _Guess I'll wait,"_ she had told herself, but that was not meant to be as only a few short moments later the entire room shaked so violently that it threw her off her feet. The shaking was then immediately replaced by muffled sounds of explosions and blaster fire in the near vicinity. It couldn't have been anything good. Alongside the now growing presence of the dark side Keira was able to sense she came to the conclusion that the Temple was under attack.

She rushed back to the door. Opening it, she let a group of Jedi and Republic guards that acted as the Temple's garrison run past her before following them. Around the corner and a bit further down the way was the grand hall through which she first entered the Temple and began her new life. That hall was now a mess of debris with many Jedi fighting Sith on the bottom level around the debris of the large pillars that Keira could only assume were destroyed by the smoking ship in the middle of the grand hall. The humongous door was also in shambles, barely any of it still there.

Keira had been standing on the upper walkway for a solid minute watching the fight, standing alongside the Republic soldiers who managed to pull her down into cover. She couldn't wrap her head around this. Only a week ago the Sith called for a peace conference on Alderaan and now they were attacking the Temple and probably Coruscant in its entirety. The troops around her fired down at the Sith below as she sat there helpless and in shock.

A sudden shift in the Force prompted her to roll. An explosion sent her sliding across the floor. Looking up, she saw the now dead soldiers scattered across the floor, many of them missing body parts. Her ears were ringing from the explosion and there was a minor pain in her left shoulder. She had never been so close to an explosion and now having experienced it she hoped she would never have to again.

A figure dressed in gray then walked up to the corpses from around the corner. To Keira's disgust they seemed to have been admiring their work as they stood above them and staring right into the mess. The person in armor turned around and immediately after spotting Keira laying on the floor immediately aimed their blaster rifle at them.

At this moment Keira's heart stopped. She never expected it would end like this. Whenever she had thought about dying not once did, she come to the idea of even being properly harmed in the warm embrace of the Temple which felt as if it was an impenetrable fortress and a symbol of the Republic. But here she was, staring death into the face with no lightsaber or blaster to protect herself and too unfocused to call upon the Force to save her like it did so many times before. It was the end or so she had thought.

Just before they could pull the trigger they were pushed away. The familiar green-colored lightsaber then appeared from behind the same corner the armored person came from. He fired at Hiram who deflected the incoming bolts. The attacker, seeing that he was outmatched then activated a jetpack by presssing a few buttons around his wrist area and flew off.

"Are you alright?" Hiram asked her immediately, already helping her up.

"How did this happen?" Keira immediately responded.

"I don't know but you have to get out of here."

"I can't just leave!" Keira protested. "I can fight."

"There is a time to fight and there is a time to retreat. This is one of those times."

"But this is our home!" She kept on going on and on about how she wasn't going to leave until Hiram grabbed her by her right shoulder and shaked her.

"Focus!" he reminded Keira. "Calm yourself."

She took some deep long breaths and pushed all of the stress away. This was no time to panic. "Okay. I'm calm." Or at least as calm as she could be while explosions, blaster fire and lightsabers hitting each other echoed from the bottom floor of the hall.

"You have to get out of here." He reached into one of his pockets and pulled out a keycard. "Take this."

She reluctantly took it from his hand.

"This opens a locked corridor to a hidden elevator that leads down into the works."

"What about the others? What about you?" At this point the stress she pushed away was almost fully replaced by fear which caused her hands to shake and her knees to feel weak.

Hiram got down on one knee. He used to do that during very important lessons. For most of her time that she was his student she would be shorter than him when he would get but for a couple of months now she had passed him in height in these moments and she had never noticed it until now. All the journeys they went on and all the tests and she had completed went by so fast that she hadn't even noticed that it had been years since she had become his Padawan.

"Self-sacrifice is the greatest thing a Jedi can do," he began. "Today we fight so that you may live. If we fail, the Temple will fall but the Jedi won't. All the young ones like you and many others are a beacon of hope, a beacon that cannot be lost here. This great Temple will be the resting ground of the old guard. You in the meantime must find a new home and carry on the torch."

"I will, master," Keira said with tears in her eyes.

"If I fall today know this – you have been my greatest student and I am proud of what you have achieved. Your potential is unequal to any other at your current age. Take the skills you have, hone them and learn new ones whether be it under my tutelage if I survive, somebody else's or even your own."

"I'll miss you."

"Me too."

And with a quick farewell hug Hiram ran towards the railing and jumped over into the insuing battle below. If it was for the last time Keira didn't know.


End file.
